Are We Reconstructing the Best Images Using Navigator-Gated 3D Coronary MRA? Multiple-Image Reconstruction Using CLAWS

Permi Jhooti¹, Jennifer Keegan², Klaus Scheffler¹, David Firmin²

A technique is presented which acquires a 3D-whole heart scan in the quickest time possible for any respiratory trace (p=ns) and enables 3 images to be reconstructed: the most-frequent 5mm navigator window, an end-expiratory image and an end-inspiratory image. Previous techniques require manual window selections which may not be optimal for scan efficiency or image quality. This modified CLAWS approach enables multiple-image reconstruction in the same acquisition time as for a single image. It is not possible to predict which image will be best. A multi-image technique is therefore optimal, particularly as there is no scan time loss.