Initial experiences with in vivo right coronary artery human MR vessel wall imaging at 3 tesla

Due to their relatively small size and central location within the thorax, improvement in signal-to-noise (SNR) is of paramount importance for in vivo coronary vessel wall imaging. Thus, with higher field strengths, coronary vessel wall imaging is likely to benefit from the expected "near linear" proportional gain in SNR. In this study, we demonstrate the feasibility of in vivo human high field (3 T) coronary vessel wall imaging using a free-breathing black blood fast gradient echo technique with respiratory navigator gating and real-time motion correction. With the broader availability of more SNR efficient fast spin echo and spiral techniques, further improvements can be expected.