The purpose of the project is to develop magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to improve coronary artery angiography (MRA). MRA is a promising screening test to select candidates for conventional angiography. Substantial progress has been made in coronary MRA in the last decade. However, preliminary clinical studies reveal that current coronary MRA techniques suffer from substantial technical failures and false positives. The objectives of the proposed project are to develop novel coronary MRA techniques to achieve the following goals: (a) improving the spatial resolution by a factor of 4-5 from current protocols, images will have true isotropic resolution in all three directions with whole-heart coverage in one scan;(b) increasing imaging speed so that whole-heart, isotropic resolution MRA can be acquired in a practical imaging time;(c) improving motion compensation schemes to allow more consistent and complete elimination of image artifacts caused by cardiac and respiratory motion.
The specific aims of the project are:
Aim 1 : To test the hypothesis that parallel acquisition projection reconstruction allows whole-heart, 0.7-mm isotropic resolution coronary MRA in 10-15 min Aim 2: To test the hypothesis that self-gating can be used for synchronization of image acquisition to the respiratory cycle in cardiac motion-resolved whole-heart coronary MRA with more accurate motion correction than diaphragmatic navigators Aim 3: To test the hypothesis that self-gating can be used for synchronization of image acquisition to the cardiac cycle in cardiac motio-resolved whole-heart coronary MRA with improved arrhythmia rejection capabilities over ECG-gating Aim 4: To verify that self-gated, cardiac motion-resolved whole-heart coronary MRA can accurately depict coronary artery stenoses in patients The end point of the project is the development and clinical validation of a new imaging method capable of acquiring whole-heart coronary MRA with substantially improved and isotropic spatial resolution and markedly reduced residual motion artifacts. It is expected that such a technique will substantially increase diagnostic accuracy of coronary disease, and facilitate the widespread clinical application of coronary MRA.
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