Li-Yueh Hsu1, Peter Kellman1, Hui
Xue2, Jens Guehring2, Sven Zuehlsdorff3,
Sujata M. Shanbhag1, W Patricia Bandettini1, Marcus Y.
Chen1, Andrew E. Arai1
1Laboratory of Cardiac Energetics,
National Heart Lung and Blood Institute / NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States; 2Imaging
and Visualization, Siemens Corporate Research, Princeton, NJ, United States; 3CMR
Research and Development, Siemens Medical Solutions, Chicago, NJ, United
States
In
this study we present an automated approach for generating fully quantitative
myocardial blood flow (MBF) pixel maps from first-pass contrast-enhanced
perfusion MR images. The results of the MBF pixel maps were evaluated in
patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease and correlated with
coronary angiography. Our results show that the performance of MBF pixel maps
is comparable to clinical interpretation. This automated approach shows the
feasibility of quantitative perfusion imaging for coronary artery disease
detection.