Single-shot late Gd enhancement imaging of myocardial infarction with retrospectively adjustable contrast and heart-phase

Abstract

Object: To enable a retrospective adjustment of image contrast and heart phase in inversion recovery prepared late gadolinium enhancement (LE) imaging in the myocardium.

Materials and methods: After one inversion pulse, unsegmented data were acquired over multiple cardiac cycles using a radial spoiled gradient-echo sequence with golden angle increments between subsequent readouts. Model-based acceleration of parameter mapping (MAP) was combined with an image registration technique ("MOCO-MAP") to enable the reconstruction of images with arbitrary inversion time TI.

Results: MOCO-MAP allowed the reconstruction of LE images with arbitrary TI for arbitrary cardiac phases in four patients suffering from myocardial infarction. Regions with LE agreed well between the MOCO-MAP and the segmented techniques typically applied in clinical routine.

Conclusions: MOCO-MAP delivers LE images with arbitrary and thus retrospectively optimized contrast between vital and diseased tissue, without the need for time-consuming TI scouting.

Keywords: Cardiomyopathies; Compressed sensing; Delayed myocardial enhancement MRI; Heart; Late Enhancement imaging; Magnetic resonance imaging; Model-based reconstruction; Myocardial infarction; Myocardium.