New MRI Technique to Detect Early Stage of Coronary Heart Disease

Researchers are a step closer in finding an imaging technique that can identify thickening of the coronary artery wall, an early stage of coronary heart disease (CAD). This is based on the result of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

This study is done by the researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

"Imaging the coronary arteries that supply the heart with blood is extremely difficult because they are very small and constantly in motion," said lead researcher Khaled Z. Abd-Elmoniem, Ph.D., staff scientist in the Biomedical and Metabolic Imaging branch of NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. "Obtaining a reliable and accurate image of these vessels is very important because thickening of the vessel wall is an early indicator of atherosclerosis."

Coronary heart disease is the narrowing of the small blood vessels that supply blood and oxygen to the heart. CHD is also referred to as Coronary artery disease. CHD is the leading cause of death in the United States.  By identifying the vessel wall thickening that precedes artery narrowing, early intervention is possible.

"We currently have no reliable way to noninvasively image coronary artery disease in its early stages, when the disease can be treated with lifestyle changes and medications to lower cholesterol," Dr. Abd-Elmoniem said.

MRI was used to measure the thickness of the coronary arteries in 26 patients with at least one risk factor for CAD and 12 healthy control participants matched to patients by body mass index.  The patients included both13 men and 13 women with mean age of 48. Whereas the healthy controls included 3 men and 9 women with mean age 26.

With the help of a single frame MRI scan and an MRI technique called time-resolved multi-frame acquisition, the researchers measured the coronary artery wall thickness in each of the study's participants. In this five continuous images are captured in order to increase the success rate of obtaining an image free of blurring.

According to the researchers adopting the time-resolved multi-frame acquisition method was more benefiting as the success rate for obtaining a usable image was 90 percent versus a success rate of 76 percent for the single-frame method. In addition to this it resulted in a greater ability to detect a significant difference between the wall thickness measurements of CAD patients and the healthy participants.

"These results suggest that MRI may be used in the future to screen for individuals at risk for coronary artery disease and may be useful for monitoring the effects of therapies," Dr. Abd-Elmoniem said.

"Dr. Abd-Elmoniem is a bright and inventive scientist who first suggested this innovative approach to improving coronary wall imaging," said Roderic Pettigrew, Ph.D., M.D., Director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) and senior collaborator of the study. "We are delighted that the technique is showing such practical promise."

Dr. Abd-Elmoniem said, "Unlike blood tests that measure cholesterol and lipids in the blood, which can be indicators of atherosclerosis, the thickness of coronary artery walls is a direct measurement of early-stage CAD." He said "additional studies are needed to validate the time-resolved multi-frame MRI technique."

The study is published online in the Journal Radiology.