CE MR Imaging of the Heart

This course has been approved for 3.0 Category A credits.
No discipline-specific Targeted CE credit is currently offered by this course.

Outline

1. Introduction
2. General Considerations for Contrast-enhanced Cardiac MR Imaging
3. Categories of Contrast Agents for Cardiac MR Imaging
4. Role of Contrast Agents for Evaluation of Cardiac Anatomy and Function
   1. Anatomy
   2. Ventricular Function
   3. Myocardial Tagging
   4. Perfusion MR Imaging
   5. Microvascular Integrity
   6. Myocardial Viability
   7. Cardiomyopathy and Myocarditis
   8. Cardiac Masses, Thrombi, and Infections
   9. Pediatric Applications
5. Coronary MR Angiography
6. Future Developments
   1. Very High Static Fields
   2. Interventional MR Imaging of the Heart
7. Conclusion

Objectives

Upon completion of this course, students will:

1. know the the leading cause of death in the United States
2. understand what conditions MRI is the most accurate test for evaluating
3. understand what adversely affects T1 contrast in cardiac MRI
4. understand what adversely affects EPI sequences in cardiac MRI
5. know what is necessary for parallel imaging
6. understand the benefits for cardiac MRI derived from parallel imaging
7. know how many different classifications of MR contrast agents there are
8. understand what extracellular agents are used for in the heart
9. be familiar with what blood pool agents contain
10. know what type of agent is formed by binding gadolinium chelates to plasma components
11. understand the characteristics of gadolinium
12. understand the characteristics of iron oxide based agents
13. know what pulse sequence cine imaging is best done with
14. understand what contrast agents adversely affect cine images
15. understand what myocardial tagging is used to evaluate
16. be familiar with contrast agent timing considerations for myocardial tagging
17. know the name of the non-contrast technique to evaluate myocardial perfusion
18. know the most practical technique to evaluate myocardial perfusion
19. understand how dynamic first pass imaging is performed
20. know what pulse sequences are used for dynamic first pass imaging
21. know which pharmaceutical agent is preferred for stress perfusion
22. understand what microvascular obstruction is caused by
23. understand how myocardial viability can be evaluated
24. be familiar with the the strengths and weaknesses of various methods to assess myocardial viability
25. know what pulse sequence is used for delayed hyper-enhancement
26. know the most accurate exam for determining myocardial viability
27. understand what focal contrast enhancement with associated wall motion abnormality is indicative of
28. know what fatty infiltration of the myocardium with associated wall motion abnormality is indicative of
29. understand for what condition MR evaluation of the pulmonary veins is commonly used
30. know what technique can be used to differentiate cardiac tumor from thrombus
31. know what the most common cardiac tumor is
32. be familiar with the defining characteristics of a myxoma on MRI
33. understand what slice thickness should be used to evaluate for cardiac thrombus
34. be familiar with alternatives when breath hold imaging is not possible
35. understand what technique is used to perform coronary artery imaging with MRI
36. know what navigator is used to monitor
37. be familiar with the benefits of contrast-enhanced MRA
38. understand from what contrast agent 3D navigator MRA may benefit
39. know what condition patients with Kawasaki disease are likely to develop
40. be familiar with which modality that may eventually be used to guide RF ablation and Stem cell transplant