Authors: C Allgayer M J Zellweger C Sticherling S Haller O Weber P T Buser J Bremerich
Publish Date: 2008/07/25
Volume: 18, Issue: 12, Pages: 2879-2884
Abstract
Isolation of the pulmonary veins has emerged as a new therapy for atrial fibrillation Preprocedural magnetic resonance MR imaging enhances safety and efficacy moreover it reduces radiation exposure of the patients and interventional team The purpose of this study was to optimize the MR protocol with respect to image quality and acquisition time In 31 patients 23–73 years the anatomy of the pulmonary veins left atrium and oesophagus was assessed on a 15Tesla scanner with four different sequences 1 ungated twodimensional true fast imaging with steady precession 2DTrueFISP 2 ECG/breathgated 3DTrueFISP 3 ungated breathheld contrastenhanced threedimensional turbo fast lowangle shot CE3DtFLASH and 4 ECG/breathgated CE3DTrueFISP Image quality was scored from 1 structure not visible to 5 excellent visibility and the acquisition time was monitored The pulmonary veins and left atrium were best visualized with CE3DtFLASH scores 450 ± 052 and 459 ± 043 and ECG/breathgated CE3DTrueFISP 447 ± 049 and 463 ± 039 Conspicuity of the oesophagus was optimal with CE3DTrueFISP and 2DTrueFISP 459 ± 035 and 419 ± 046 but poor with CE3DtFLASH 103 ± 013 p 005 Acquisition times were shorter for 2DTrueFISP 44 ± 1 s and CE3DtFLASH 345 ± 113 s compared with ECG/breathgated 3DTrueFISP 634 ± 197 s and ECG/breathgated CE3DTrueFISP 636 ± 230 s p 005 In conclusion an MR imaging protocol comprising CE3DtFLASH and 2DTrueFISP allows assessment of the pulmonary veins left atrium and oesophagus in less than 7 min and can be recommended for preprocedural imaging before electric isolation of pulmonary veins
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