Objective: We examined the frequency and significance of extracoronary findings in a sample of asymptomatic of Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis participants who had coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA).
Subjects and methods: The Multiethnic Study of Atherosclerosis is a cohort study that, at baseline, included 6814 participants 45 to 84 years old, and free of clinical cardiovascular disease. A random subset of 254 participants underwent coronary MRA. Two experienced readers evaluated all images, and a consensus reading was performed. The findings were classified based on their clinical significance.
Results: Extracoronary findings were detected in 101 (39.8%) of the 254 participants. Additional imaging or clinical referral was need for 15 (5.9%) of the 254 participants. None of the participants required emergency referral. Signal loss in a pulmonary artery branch due to navigator beam saturation occurred in 59 (23%) of the 254 participants simulating a pulmonary embolus.
Conclusions: The prevalence of reportable extracoronary findings on coronary MRA is high. Familiarity with noncardiac magnetic resonance imaging interpretation may help in avoiding unnecessary testing resulting from inconclusive identification of extracoronary abnormalities detected incidentally on coronary MRA.