A 32-channel coil array for coronary MR angiography provided a baseline signal-to-noise ratio increase of up to 40% over conventional coils, enabling single breath-hold volumetric coverage.
Does a 32-channel coil array and receiver system improve signal-to-noise ratio and enable single breath-hold whole-heart coverage in coronary MRA compared to conventional coils?
A 32-channel MR system enables highly accelerated, single breath-hold whole-heart coronary MRA with improved signal-to-noise ratio compared to conventional coils.
Coronary MR angiography (CMRA) is generally confined to the acquisition of multiple targeted slabs with coverage dictated by the competing constraints of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), physiological motion, and scan time. This work addresses these obstacles by demonstrating the technical feasibility of using a 32-channel coil array and receiver system for highly accelerated volumetric breath-hold CMRA. The use of the 32-element array in unaccelerated CMRA studies provided a baseline SNR increase of as much as 40% over conventional cardiac-optimized phased array coils, which resulted in substantially enhanced image quality and improved delineation of the coronary arteries. Modest accelerations were used to reduce breath-hold durations for tailored coverage of the coronary arteries using targeted multi-oblique slabs to as little as 10 s. Finally, high net accelerations were combined with the SNR advantages of a 3D steady-state free precession (SSFP) technique to achieve previously unattainable comprehensive volumetric coverage of the coronary arteries in a single breath-hold. The merits and limitations of this simplified volumetric imaging approach are discussed and its implications for coronary MRA are considered.
Niendorf et al. (Mon,) reported a other. 32-channel coil array and receiver system vs. conventional cardiac-optimized phased array coils was evaluated on Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). A 32-channel coil array for coronary MR angiography provided a baseline signal-to-noise ratio increase of up to 40% over conventional coils, enabling single breath-hold volumetric coverage.