title: Quantification of myocardial blood flow using non-ECG-triggered MR imaging.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  MR myocardial perfusion imaging is dependent on reliable electrocardiogram (ECG) triggering for accurate measurement of myocardial blood flow (MBF). A non-ECG-triggered method for quantitative first-pass imaging may improve clinical feasibility in patients with poor ECG signal. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of a non-ECG-triggered method for myocardial perfusion imaging in a single slice.
  
  
  METHODS
  The proposed non-ECG-triggered technique uses a saturation-recovery magnetization preparation and golden-angle radial acquisition for integrated arterial input function (AIF) measurement. Image based self-gating with a temporal resolution of 42.6 ms is used to generate a first-pass image series with consistent cardiac phase. The AIF is measured using beat-by-beat T1 estimation of the ventricular blood pool. The proposed technique was performed on 14 healthy volunteers and compared against a conventional ECG-triggered dual-bolus acquisition.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The proposed method produced MBF with no significant difference compared with ECG-triggered technique (mean of 0.63 ± 0.22 mL/min/g to 0.73 ± 0.21 mL/min/g).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We have developed a non-ECG-triggered perfusion imaging method with T1 based measurement of the AIF in a single slice. In this preliminary study, our results demonstrate that MBF measured using the proposed method is comparable to the conventional ECG-triggered method.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA.|Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: Behzad
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sharif
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA.|David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: Rohan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dharmakumar
authors.affiliation: S. Mark Taper Foundation Imaging Center, Department of Imaging, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.|Barbara Streisand Women's Heart Center, Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: Louise E J
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Thomson
authors.affiliation: Barbara Streisand Women's Heart Center, Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: C Noel
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Bairey Merz
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA.|S. Mark Taper Foundation Imaging Center, Department of Imaging, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Berman
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA.|David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
authors.forename: Debiao
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D003331:Coronary Vessels / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D055414:Myocardial Perfusion Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: arterial input function; flow quantification; myocardial perfusion; saturation correction; ungated acquisition