Myocardial T1 mapping for patients with implanted cardiac devices using wideband inversion recovery spoiled gradient echo readout

Jiaxin Shao; Shams Rashid; Pierangelo Renella; Kim-Lien Nguyen; Peng Hu

doi:10.1002/mrm.26223

Myocardial T1 mapping for patients with implanted cardiac devices using wideband inversion recovery spoiled gradient echo readout

Magn Reson Med. 2017 Apr;77(4):1495-1504. doi: 10.1002/mrm.26223. Epub 2016 Mar 28.

Authors

Jiaxin Shao¹, Shams Rashid¹, Pierangelo Renella^{2

3}, Kim-Lien Nguyen^{4

5}, Peng Hu^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiological Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
² Department of Radiology, Ronald Reagan-UCLA Medical Center, California, USA.
³ Irvine College of Medicine, Irvine, California, USA.
⁴ Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁵ Division of Cardiology, Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁶ Biomedical Physics Inter-Departmental Graduate Program, University of California, Los Angeles, California, USA.

PMID: 27018872
DOI: 10.1002/mrm.26223

Abstract

Purpose: To develop and validate a technique for myocardial T1 mapping in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs).

Methods: A MOLLI-based pulse sequence, named Wideband-FLASH-MOLLI, was developed by incorporating a fast low angle shot (FLASH) readout and a wideband inversion pulse. The performance of Wideband-FLASH-MOLLI was evaluated using phantom studies and validated in eight healthy volunteers and ten patients with ICDs at 1.5 Tesla. Comparisons were made between Wideband-FLASH-MOLLI, FLASH-MOLLI, and bSSFP-MOLLI sequences.

Results: In phantom studies, the maximum T1 estimation errors using Wideband-FLASH-MOLLI with and without an ICD were less than 3% for T1 range from 212 to 1673 ms. In all healthy volunteers, there was no significant native myocardial T1 estimation difference using Wideband-FLASH-MOLLI before and after the external attachment of an ICD to the body coil (1178 ± 27 ms versus 1174 ± 33 ms; P = 0.41). Due to the presence of an ICD, the magnitude images acquired using bSSFP-MOLLI and FLASH-MOLLI showed severe artifacts within the myocardium. In contrast, no or negligible device-induced artifacts were noted within the myocardial regions of the healthy volunteers or the patients with ICDs when using Wideband-FLASH-MOLLI.

Conclusion: This study demonstrates the feasibility of using Wideband-FLASH-MOLLI to mitigate image artifacts and to produce accurate myocardial T1 maps in patients with ICDs. Magn Reson Med 77:1495-1504, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Keywords: ICD; MOLLI; T1 mapping; myocardial fibrosis; wideband.

MeSH terms

Adult
Algorithms
Artifacts*
Cardiac Imaging Techniques / methods*
Defibrillators, Implantable*
Female
Heart / anatomy & histology*
Humans
Image Enhancement / methods*
Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / instrumentation
Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / methods
Magnetic Resonance Imaging / instrumentation
Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods*
Male
Middle Aged
Phantoms, Imaging
Reproducibility of Results
Sensitivity and Specificity
Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted*