Spiral balanced steady-state free precession cardiac imaging.
Balanced steady-state free precession (SSFP) sequences are useful in cardiac imaging because they achieve high signal efficiency and excellent blood-myocardium contrast. Spiral imaging enables the efficient acquisition of cardiac images with reduced flow and motion artifacts. Balanced SSFP has been combined with spiral imaging for real-time interactive cardiac MRI. New features of this method to enable scanning in a clinical setting include short, first-moment nulled spiral trajectories and interactive control over the spatial location of banding artifacts (SSFP-specific signal variations). The feasibility of spiral balanced SSFP cardiac imaging at 1.5 T is demonstrated. In observations from over 40 volunteer and patient studies, spiral balanced SSFP imaging shows significantly improved contrast compared to spiral gradient-spoiled imaging, producing better visualization of cardiac function, improved localization, and reduced flow artifacts from blood.
Nayak
Krishna S
KS
Magnetic Resonance Systems Research Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA. knayak@usc.edu
Hargreaves
Brian A
BA
Hu
Bob S
BS
Nishimura
Dwight G
DG
Pauly
John M
JM
Meyer
Craig H
CH
D016477:Artifacts; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D006321:Heart / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D019028:Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Cine / Q000379:methods*; D009200:Myocardial Contraction / Q000502:physiology; D011673:Pulsatile Flow; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity