Myocardial perfusion imaging using OMNISCAN: a dose finding study for visual assessment of stress-induced regional perfusion abnormalities.

BACKGROUND Different doses of contrast agent are applied for magnetic resonance perfusion studies and mainly semiquantitative approaches have been reported for analysis. We aimed to determine the optimal dose for a visual detection of perfusion defects. METHODS 49 patients (59+/-8 years; 33 male) scheduled for invasive angiography were examined at stress (0.14 mg adenosine/kg body weight/minute) and rest using a TFE-EPI hybrid sequence (Philips ACS NT; 1.5 T). Patients were assigned to three different dose groups of gadodiamide (0.05, 0.1, and 0.15 mmol/kg body weight) injected as a bolus via a peripheral vein. Visual assessment was used to detect a regional reduction of peak signal intensity or speed of contrast agent inflow at stress in comparison to rest. RESULTS Prevalence for coronary artery disease was 67%. The highest diagnostic accuracy was reached for a dose of 0.1 mmol gadodiamide/kg body weight (86% p=nonsignificant vs. 0.15 and 0.05 mmol gadodiamide/kg). At this dose, no major artifacts related to the contrast agent were found. CONCLUSIONS Visual assessment of myocardial perfusion using a high-flow rate contrast agent bolus injection and a TFE-EPI sequence can be best achieved with a dose of gadodiamide 0.1 mmol/kg bodyweight.