Utility of coronary MR angiography in children with Kawasaki disease

OBJECTIVE. Although coronary arterial lesions due to Kawasaki disease ( KD) should be evaluated as early as possible after the acute phase, conventional X-ray coronary angiography poses high risks for young children with the disease. The use of noninvasive MR coronary angiography is desirable, although it is difficult to produce clear images in young children. We developed a method to improve the quality of MR coronary angiography in young children. MR coronary angiography with vector electrocardiogram gating, real-time navigator-echo, 3D, steady-state free precession was performed in 35 children with KD. Many parameters ( i.e., field of view, acquisition delay, turbo-field echo-factor, navigator window, and resolution) were optimized for each patient. CONCLUSION. Optimization resulted in the acquisition of high-resolution and high-signal images of the coronary arteries. It remarkably improved not only the quality of the images, but also the detection rate of coronary artery segments. MR coronary angiography is a useful method for evaluating coronary aneurysms from the early stages of KD, even in infants and small children.