Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging at 3.0 Tesla

Cardiovascular MR imaging often requires high temporal and spatial resolution, especially in order to acquire data about cardiac function. Furthermore, the current results at 1.5 T for coronary artery imaging or plaque imaging are still not satisfying even with the use of the latest technology. Therefore, cardiac imaging inherently demands high signal-to-noise (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR) and hence may benefit from higher magnetic field strengths. However, higher magnetic field strengths do not inevitably improve the image quality for all cardiac imaging techniques as compared with their 1.5 T counterparts. At higher magnetic field strengths one has to cope with increased field inhomogeneities, longer T(1), shorter T(2)* relaxation times and radiofrequency power deposition constraints, which require further methodological developments. Initial studies using 3.0 T whole-body scanners for cardiac imaging revealed that optimized steady-state free precession or spin-echo sequences meet the expected SNR increase at 3.0 T but showed different results for CNR. These results are especially encouraging for cardiac tissue characterization at 3 T together with the evolving parallel imaging techniques. This review focuses on the feasibility of cardiac MR imaging at high magnetic field strengths. The pros and cons of cardiac imaging at 3.0 T vs. 1.5 T are examined and technical solutions are discussed.