Usefulness of compressed sensing coronary magnetic resonance angiography with deep learning reconstruction

Coronary magnetic resonance angiography (CMRA) scans are generally time-consuming. CMRA with compressed sensing (CS) and artificial intelligence (AI) (CSAI CMRA) is expected to shorten the imaging time while maintaining image quality. This study aimed to evaluate the usefulness of CS and AI for non-contrast CMRA.

Twenty volunteers underwent both CS and conventional CMRA. Conventional CMRA employed parallel imaging (PI) with an acceleration factor of 2. CS CMRA employed a combination of PI and CS with an acceleration factor of 3. Deep learning reconstruction was performed offline on the CS CMRA data after scanning, which was defined as CSAI CMRA. We compared the imaging time, image quality, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), and vessel sharpness for each CMRA scan.

The CS CMRA scan time was significantly shorter than that of conventional CMRA (460 s [343,753 s] vs. 727 s [567,939 s], p < 0.001). The image quality scores of the left anterior descending artery (LAD) and left circumflex artery (LCX) were significantly higher in conventional CMRA (LAD: 3.3 ± 0.7, LCX: 3.3 ± 0.7) and CSAI CMRA (LAD: 3.7 ± 0.6, LCX: 3.5 ± 0.7) than the CS CMRA (LAD: 2.9 ± 0.6, LCX: 2.9 ± 0.6) (p < 0.05). The right coronary artery scores did not vary among the three groups (p = 0.087). The SNR and CNR were significantly higher in CSAI CMRA (SNR: 12.3 [9.7, 13.7], CNR: 12.3 [10.5, 14.5]) and CS CMRA (SNR: 10.5 [8.2, 12.6], CNR: 9.5 [7.9, 12.6]) than conventional CMRA (SNR: 9.0 [7.8, 11.1], CNR: 7.7 [6.0, 10.1]) (p < 0.01). The vessel sharpness was significantly higher in CSAI CMRA (LAD: 0.87 [0.78, 0.91]) (p < 0.05), with no significant difference between the CS CMRA (LAD: 0.77 [0.71, 0.83]) and conventional CMRA (LAD: 0.77 [0.71, 0.86]).

CSAI CMRA can shorten the imaging time while maintaining good image quality.