NEW YORK, Jun 21 (Reuters Health) -- A new technique called magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) allows doctors to take three-dimensional images of the heart. The pictures help to diagnose coronary heart disease without performing heart catheterization, an invasive technique that requires the injection of a dye.
MRA uses short magnetic pulses to provide clear, 3-D pictures of the coronary arteries, the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart, report a team of researchers led by senior author Dr. Warren J. Manning of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts.
The researchers performed MRA in eight healthy adults and five patients with confirmed coronary heart disease. Among patients with heart disease, the images obtained corresponded with the patient's degree of disease, according to the report.
The new procedure takes only 10 to 30 minutes and requires neither x-rays nor injections, according to results published in the June 22nd issue of Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. The patient simply lies on his or her back and breathes quietly during the exam.
This contrasts with conventional coronary angiography, the method used to assess the coronary arteries in most patients. Conventional coronary angiography requires cardiac catheterization, during which a small tube is inserted into the body via a major vessel in the groin and fed via blood vessels into the heart, and eventually into a coronary artery. Then, a rapid series of x-rays is taken while dye is injected into the coronary arteries to determine whether or not blockages are present.
Cardiac catheterization takes less than an hour for most patients, but they must recover for several hours before being discharged from the hospital.
MRA, on the other hand, takes less than 30 minutes and is estimated to cost less than one-quarter the cost of traditional angiography. The technique offers the possibility of a shorter, safer, and less expensive assessment of a patient's coronary arteries, the authors write.
"It is likely that the technique will become the standard approach at many cardiac MRA centers because of its ease of use and high quality," Manning said in a statement from the American Heart Association.
The technique is currently being studied at eight medical centers around the world, according to the statement.
SOURCE: Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association 1999;99:3139-3148.
