Coronary MR angiography

MR angiography of the coronary arteries became possible in 1991 with the development of a new group of fast MR imaging sequences. Although the role of coronary MR angiography in screening for coronary artery lesions has not yet been established, coronary MR angiography already has been very successful in the detection of coronary artery variants and the imaging of coronary stents and bypass grafts. Variants of these new MR imaging techniques also can quantitate velocity in native coronary arteries. Several generations of coronary MR angiographic techniques exist; all techniques use EKG-triggering. The use of MR contrast agents appears to further improve all techniques. Technical progress and changes in this subfield of cardiac MR imaging have been so fast that large-scale preclinical trials have not been conducted with the majority of the first and second generation coronary MR angiographic pulse sequences as known today. This article reviews the development of these new cardiac MR imaging techniques and the initial successes with clinical application using commercial MR scanners.