Improved MR coronary angiography with use of a new rapid clearance blood pool contrast agent in pigs.

Purpose: To evaluate in an animal model the potential for clinical use of a new rapid clearance blood pool contrast agent to improve free-breathing and breath-hold magnetic resonance (MR) coronary angiography.

Materials And Methods: Free-breathing and breath-hold MR coronary angiography were performed in a pig model (n = 9) (a) without use of a contrast agent; (b) with P792 (Guerbet Research, Aulnay Sous Bois, France), a monodisperse monogadolinated macromolecular compound that acts as a blood pool contrast agent with rapid clearance properties; and (c) with an extravascular gadolinium-based contrast agent. This resulted in six imaging options, which were compared in terms of contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), signal-to-noise ratio, and vessel length measurements by using the Student t test.

Results: Use of P792 improved CNR and visible vessel length significantly with both MR respiratory motion correction approaches, as compared with nonenhanced MR imaging (P <.05). CNR was improved by 76% (from 5.0 to 8.6) with the free-breathing approach and by 34% (from 6.2 to 8.2) with the breath-hold approach. Visible vessel length was increased by 27% (from 79.7 to 99.2 mm) with the free-breathing approach and by 90% (from 48.2 to 86.5 mm) with the breath-hold approach. The P792-enhanced free-breathing approach allowed more distal visualization of the coronary arteries than did the P792-enhanced breath-hold approach (P <.05). Use of the extravascular contrast agent did not improve image quality significantly when compared with that of nonenhanced MR images.

Conclusion: Use of P792 improves coronary artery MR imaging in conjunction with free-breathing and breath-hold approaches.