Coronary MRA at 3 Tesla a Qualitative Comparison of a Novel Adiabatic T2-Preparation with Classic MLEV4

Wolfgang G. Rehwald¹, ², Christoph Jensen², Elizabeth R. Jenista², David C. Wendell², Enn-Ling Chen², Raymond J. Kim²

Non-contrast coronary MRA at 3T relies on a B1-, B0-, and motion-insensitive T2-preparation to accurately depict coronary anomalies and stenoses. We previously developed an adiabatic T2-preparation fulfilling these requirements. In the current study, we compared its performance to the clinical standard MLEV4. We scored the depiction quality of six representative coronary segments and the visibility of selected proximal artery segments, and tested for statistical differences. The adiabatic module provided significantly improved image quality in the selected segments, and detected significantly more of the proximal coronary segments. Visual inspection of curved MPRs obtained from the same data confirmed our results.