Assessment of coronary artery disease using 3.0 T magnetic resonance coronary angiography: a national multicenter trial

Background 3.0T contrast enhanced whole-heart coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) is a promising method for noninvasive, radiation-free detection and exclusion of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD); however, the accuracy of this approach has not been determined in a multicenter trial. Methods An ECG-triggered, navigator-gated, inversion-recovery prepared, segmented gradient-echo sequence was used for image acquisition in 272 patients with suspected CAD at 8 hospitals. The accuracy of coronary MRA for detecting a 50% diameter reduction was determined using X-ray coronary angiography as the reference method. Using an