[Assessment of coronary flow reserve using fast phase contrast cine MR imaging]

Physiological significance of coronary artery stenosis can be evaluated by measuring coronary flow reserve(CFR). Segmented k-space cine phase-contrast(PC) MR method has been used for measuring coronary blood flow and CFR. MR measurement of the CFR ratio(1.62 +/- 0.50, n = 10) in patients with coronary arterial stenosis was significantly lower than that measured in healthy subjects(3.14 +/- 0.59, n = 10, p < .01). The CFR measured by MRI demonstrated a good linear correlation with the CFR directly measured by Doppler flow wire during X-ray angiography(r = 0.91, n = 19). MR measurement of flow volume in the coronary sinus and myocardial mass can provide evaluation of blood flow rate per myocardial mass for the entire left ventricle, which was substantially decreased in patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.