Improved turbo spin-echo imaging of the heart with motion-tracking

✍ Scribed by Jennifer Keegan; Peter D. Gatehouse; Sanjay K. Prasad; David N. Firmin

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2006
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 690 KB
• Volume: 24
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1053-1807
• DOI: 10.1002/jmri.20655

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Purpose

To improve dark‐blood and short tau inversion recovery (STIR) prepared turbo spin‐echo (TSE) imaging of the heart, particularly in the basal short‐axis plane where cardiac misregistration between the preparation and imaging phases is high.

Materials and Methods

In the first approach (tracked), the basal short‐axis plane was labeled and tracked over the cardiac cycle. The slice‐selective 180° dark‐blood and STIR preparation pulses were then independently positioned on the appropriately timed labeled images. In the second approach (offset), the preparation pulses were output in the same orientation as the imaging plane, but with a user‐defined slice offset that was derived from the labeled data. Both approaches were compared with the standard untracked dark‐blood STIR TSE sequence (7‐mm slice thickness) in 10 healthy volunteers.

Results

For typical preparation slice thicknesses, tracked and offset TSE images were superior to the untracked images (both P < 0.01). For the more mobile right ventricle (RV), the image quality of the tracked images was superior to that of the offset images (P < 0.05).

Conclusion

Tracking the through‐plane motion of the heart between preparation and imaging phases improves the quality of thin‐slice basal short‐axis TSE images, particularly for the more mobile RV. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.