Eugene G. Kholmovski1,
2, Sathya Vijayakumar1, 2, Douglas Sheffer3,
Lowell Chang, 23, Krishna N. Velagapudi, 23,
Christopher J. McGann, 23, Nassir F. Marrouche2, 3
1UCAIR,
Department of Radiology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United
States; 2CARMA Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT,
United States; 3Department of Cardiology, University of Utah, Salt
Lake City, UT, United States
A novel MRA sequence for simultaneous visualization of the left atrium (LA) and pulmonary veins (PVs), and esophagus has been developed. The sequence was compared with conventional MRA sequence in 80 patients study. Quality scores were determined for the following categories: contrast, border sharpness, details of the PVs, LA, LA appendage, and esophagus, and overall image quality. Analysis shown that novel ECG-gated MRA scored significantly higher than non-gated MRA in all categories. New sequence may improve diagnostics and treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation including planning and execution of RF ablations, detection of PV stenosis, and following LA remodeling post-ablation.
Keywords