Suzanne C. Gerretsen1, M. Eline Kooi1, Rene M. Botnar2, Johannes Waltenberger3, Rob J. van der Geest4, J. Dijkstra4, J. H. Reiber4, Tim Leiner1
1Radiology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, Netherlands; 2Dept. of Experimental MRI, King's College London, London, UK; 3Cardiology, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, Netherlands; 4LKEB, Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands
In this study, MR of the coronary vessel wall (MR-CVW) was compared to the current in-vivo standard of reference for coronary vessel wall imaging: intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). Fourteen patients with chest pain underwent both MR-CVW and IVUS. On both IVUS and MR-CVW, areas of focal wall thickening in the RCA were identified and wall thickness was measured. The current study confirmed the ability of MR-CVW to detect areas of positive remodeling as seen with IVUS. There is a good agreement between IVUS and MRI with regard to location and extent of wall thickening. However, MR-CVW overestimated wall thickness approximately 3-fold.
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