Cardiac imaging: comparison of two-shot echo-planar imaging with fast segmented K-space and conventional gradient-echo cine acquisitions.
We compared the cardiac image quality of multishot echo-planar imaging (EPI), segmented K-space, and conventional cine acquisitions. Three techniques were used to obtain gated multiphase acquisitions of an axial section traversing both ventricles in 10 volunteers: two-shot EPI acquired nonsequentially over two heart beats breath-held; segmented K-space cine with eight K-space lines acquired per cardiac trigger over 16 R-R intervals, also breath-held; and 24 cine phases obtained over 256 R-R intervals. Intraventricular SNRs with two-shot EPI were superior to segmented K-space cine acquisitions (P < .005) and not statistically different from conventional cine acquisitions (P < .1). Intraventricular signal was most homogeneous on conventional cine images (P < .05). Coronary artery visualization and myocardial delineation were better on the EPI image set than on segmented K-space cine images (P < .05). Two-shot EPI provides high-quality gated cardiac images with an acquisition time of only 2 seconds.
Leung
D A
DA
Department of Radiology, Zürich University Hospital, Switzerland.
Debatin
J F
JF
Wildermuth
S
S
McKinnon
G C
GC
von Schulthess
G K
GK
D000328:Adult; D016477:Artifacts; D003326:Coronary Circulation / Q000502:physiology; D017352:Echo-Planar Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008297:Male; D011673:Pulsatile Flow / Q000502:physiology; D012016:Reference Values; D012119:Respiration / Q000502:physiology