Radial simultaneous multi-slice for myocardial perfusion MRI

Myocardial perfusion MRI captures the contrast agent flow in the myocardium, which is a powerful tool for detecting coronary artery diseases non-invasively. Such scans are challenging because of the high temporal and spatial resolution required to freeze the cardiac motion and resolve the myocardium wall. The radial simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) technique provides a fast imaging solution to myocardial perfusion MRI.

The radial SMS technique excites and acquires multiple image slices simultaneously, and when combined with controlled aliasing (CAIPIRINHA) phase modulation, the images can be reconstructed at high quality. Different from Cartesian sampling, the radial trajectory goes through the k-space center every line and this makes the radial sampling more robust to motion. Figure 1 illustrates the radial SMS sampling scheme and the corresponding slices that are simultaneously acquired. The radial SMS data requires specific reconstructions to grid the radial data before Fourier transform and de-modulated the simultaneously acquired slices.

Figure 1.

Non-ECG-gated free-breathing acquisition for myocardial perfusion MRI is a promising acquisition strategy which provides more robust acquisition. Our group is working on developing acquisition, reconstruction and quantification methods for such acquisitions. One of our recent development is to acquire whole-heart perfusion images by using an interleaving radial SMS acquisition without magnetization preparation. This unique acquisition provides whole-heart and all cardiac phases images at high SNR; an ischemia case acquired by this sequence is shown in Figures 2 and 3.

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Related Publications

  1. Tian Y, Mendes J, Pedgaonkar A, Ibrahim M, Jensen L, Schroeder JD, Wilson B, DiBella EVR, Adluru G. Feasibility of multiple-view myocardial perfusion MRI using radial simultaneous multi-slice acquisitions. PLoS One 2019;14(2):e0211738.
  2. Wang H, Adluru G, Chen L, Kholmovski EG, Bangerter NK, DiBella EV. Radial simultaneous multi-slice CAIPI for ungated myocardial perfusion. Magn Reson Imaging 2016;34(9):1329-1336.