Purpose: To optimize and validate a modified cine inversion recovery sequence (MCine-IR) for myocardial T1 quantification and gadolinium partition coefficient (λ(Gd)) estimation at 1.5 T.
Materials and methods: The original version of the cine inversion recovery sequence was modified to allow fully transverse magnetization recovery between two successive inversion pulses. Sixty heart phases were acquired from a number of heart cycles determined on a patient heart rate basis. Phantom studies were carried out to find the optimal effective TR for myocardial and blood pool T1 quantifications in pre- and postcontrast studies. Four patients with myocardial infarct (MI) and 22 dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) were investigated, as well as 11 healthy subjects used as controls.
Results: Effective TR was identified to be 5000 msec and 2000 msec, respectively, for pre- and postcontrast studies. A longer precontrast (948 ± 102 msec) and shorter postcontrast (348 ± 27 msec) T1 in ischemic patients relative to DCM (815 ± 98 msec, P = 0.03 and 409 ± 42 msec, P = 0.001) were noted in delayed enhancement (DE) areas. In MI patients λ(Gd) resulted higher than in DCM in DE areas (609 ± 167 vs. 422 ± 52, P = 0.01) but lower in segments not exhibiting DE (355 ± 100 vs. 398 ± 54, P = 0.02).
Conclusion: It was feasible to measure T1 and λ(Gd) with MCine-IR and the results were in good agreement with the literature.
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