Steady State MRA Techniques with a Blood Pool Contrast Agent Improve Visualization of Pulmonary Venous Anatomy Compared with Time Resolved MRA Pre and Post Catheter Ablation in Atrial Fibrillation

Rahul Rustogi¹, Mauricio Galizia¹, Jeremy Collins¹, Darshit Thakrar¹, James Carr¹

Time resolved MRA is advantageous in the pulmonary circulation with its rapid arteriovenous transit time, allowing acquisition of pure pulmonary venous phase images, however increased temporal resolution comes at the cost of decreased spatial resolution. Proposed use of steady state MRA (inversion recovery FISP and FLASH sequences) with a blood pool agent can obviate the need to perform bolus timing while significantly increasing spatial resolution. Accurate assessment of anatomical variants such as early branching pattern of pulmonary veins before ablation and ostial stenosis post-ablation, is vital for catheter based ablation therapies for patients with atrial fibrillation.