Imaging of the coronary vessels

Abstract

A new flow imaging method of imaging the arteries and veins of the heart, i.e., NMR coronary artery imaging is described. The method is based on the cardiac cycle gaited chine imaging and 2-D planar imaging using the large($90\,^\circ$) flip angle steady state free precession (SSFP) technique. By additional postprocessing of the obtained images a 3-D volume image of the coronary vessels only is acquired. Experiments are performed with the KAIS 2.0T whole bed MRI system and images are obtained for the phantoms and normal volunteers.