Two-dimensional coronary MR angiography: analysis of initial clinical results

To assess the diagnostic value of two-dimensional coronary magnetic resonance (MR) angiography in patients evaluate for ischemic heart disease.

Twenty patients who underwent elective cardiac catheterization with coronary angiography were evaluated with two-dimensional coronary MR angiography. Coronary MR angiography was performed with a fat-suppressed electrocardiographically gated gradient-echo sequence with k-space segmentation with a 1.5-T imager.

Seventeen of the 20 patients had a hemodynamically significant coronary artery lesion (> or = 50% reduction in luminal diameter), with a total of 27 proximal lesions. The sensitivity for detection of hemodynamically significant lesions was 62% for the right coronary artery, 50% for the left main artery, 73% for the left anterior descending artery, and 0% for the left circumflex artery, with an overall sensitivity of 63%. Corresponding specificities were 56%, 84%, 37%, and 82% respectively.

Although in an early stage of development, two-dimensional coronary MR angiography can depict 63% of hemodynamically significant coronary artery lesions.