Contrast- Enhanced Whole-Heart Coronary MRA at 3.0T (Tesla)

Investigators at the Biomedical Imaging Research Institute (BIRI) at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center have developed a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) method for imaging coronary arteries using slow-infusion, contrast-enhanced data acquisition. This method allows faster data acquisition and better spatial resolution. Specific aims of this study are to: 1. compare coronary artery imaging with and without contrast media on both healthy subjects and patients; 2. assess the accuracy of coronary MRI in detecting coronary artery disease as compared to conventional x-ray angiography Researchers hypothesize that contrast-enhanced MRI will improve the delineation of coronary arteries over non-contrast-enhanced MRI and that optimized, contrast-enhanced coronary MRI technique will accurately detect coronary artery disease (CAD) as compared to conventional x-ray angiography.