Comparison of Magnetic Resonance Angiography and Standard Angiography in Diagnosing Atherosclerosis

Completed · Phase 1

Conditions studied: Atherosclerosis

In brief

This study will evaluate ways to improve magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) for diagnosing atherosclerosis (hardening and narrowing of the arteries). MRA is a new method for looking at arteries and veins without standard angiography, which requires inserting a catheter into a blood vessel, injecting a contrast material, and obtaining X-ray images. Current MRA techniques, however, do not depict the lumen (cavity) of small vessels well enough to accurately determine the extent of their narrowing. This study will test image processing methods with the eventual goal of improving MRA accuracy to the point that it can replace X-ray catheter angiography for diagnosing atherosclerotic disease. Patients with atherosclerosis who have had conventional angiography at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, MD, may be considered for this study. They will be screened with a brief history and physical examination, and those enrolled will have a MRA scan within 72 hours of their conventional angiogram. For this procedure, a catheter is placed in a vein in the patient's arm and the patient lies on a table that slides into a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner-a large donut-shaped machine with a magnetic field. Surface coils-flexible, padded antennae used to improve the quality of the pictures-are wrapped around the patient's legs. At times during the scan, the patient is asked to hold his or her breath for several seconds, and a contrast material called gadolinium is injected through the catheter in the vein. This substance enhances the images of blood flow in the vessels. The procedure generally takes about an hour and a half, although the actual imaging takes only a small part of that time.

Key facts

Study ID
NCT00001946
Run by
National Institutes of Health Clinical Center (CC)
People needed
40
Starts
1999-12-01
Expected to finish
2002-09-01
Last updated by the study team
2008-03-04

Who can join

Age: any. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

Where it is running

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

Trial information comes from ClinicalTrials.gov and is refreshed daily. TrialsForMe does not provide medical care and does not run the studies it lists.