Physical principles of magnetic resonance angiography.

This review provides a brief introduction to the basic concepts of MRA techniques with specific discussions on imaging of coronary arteries. These techniques, especially those for imaging of coronary arteries, are still rapidly evolving. The goals of future research include obtaining faster imaging, higher SNR, and higher resolution. These three aspects are closely interconnected and major breakthrough in one area could result in improvements in all three areas. Some of the areas of important developments in the future will include continued improvement of imaging hardware and software to allow use of even faster imaging techniques, further testing and development of intravascular contrast agents, and continued improvement of radiofrequency coils [37]. A key area of research for imaging of coronary arteries is further improvement of techniques for compensation for motion. MRA has played important clinical roles in many areas and will find more applications in the near future.