title: Free-breathing 3D whole-heart black-blood imaging with motion sensitized driven equilibrium.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the efficacy and robustness of motion sensitized driven equilibrium (MSDE) for blood suppression in volumetric 3D whole-heart cardiac MR.
  
  
  METHODS
  To investigate the efficacy of MSDE on blood suppression and myocardial signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) loss on different imaging sequences, seven healthy adult subjects were imaged using 3D electrocardiogram (ECG)-triggered MSDE-prep T(1) -weighted turbo spin echo (TSE), and spoiled gradient echo (GRE), after optimization of MSDE parameters in a pilot study of five subjects. Imaging artifacts, myocardial and blood SNR were assessed. Subsequently, the feasibility of isotropic spatial resolution MSDE-prep black-blood was assessed in six subjects. Finally, 15 patients with known or suspected cardiovascular disease were recruited to be imaged using a conventional multislice 2D double inversion recovery (DIR) TSE imaging sequence and a 3D MSDE-prep spoiled GRE.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The MSDE-prep yielded significant blood suppression (75%-92%), enabling a volumetric 3D black-blood assessment of the whole heart with significantly improved visualization of the chamber walls. The MSDE-prep also allowed successful acquisition of black-blood images with isotropic spatial resolution. In the patient study, 3D black-blood MSDE-prep and DIR resulted in similar blood suppression in left ventricle and right ventricle walls but the MSDE-prep had superior myocardial signal and wall sharpness.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  MSDE-prep allows volumetric black-blood imaging of the heart.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine (Cardiovascular Division), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Subashini
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Srinivasan
authors.forename: Peng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.forename: Kraig V
authors.initials: KV
authors.lastname: Kissinger
authors.forename: Beth
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Goddu
authors.forename: Lois
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Goepfert
authors.forename: Ehud J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Sebastian
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kozerke
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nezafat
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D016477:Artifacts; D055424:Cardiac-Gated Imaging Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006321:Heart / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009038:Motion; D009068:Movement; D010865:Pilot Projects; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D015656:Respiratory Mechanics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult