In vivo human coronary magnetic resonance angiography at 7 Tesla

Introduction. Cardiac MRI at high fields faces many challenges including the lack of commercially available body RF coils, increased sample-induced B1 inhomogeneity, increased magnetic susceptibility effects which make imaging with balanced sequences difficult, and SAR limitations. However, if these can be at least partially overcome, then the higher signal-to-noise is advantageous both for imaging and localized spectroscopy. Here we investigate the feasibility of acquiring coronary magnetic resonance angiography (CMRA) scans, a promising technique for the non-invasive visualization of the coronary anatomy (1), in volunteers at 7 tesla (T) on a time-scale acceptable for clinical studies.