Edward DiBella1, Devavrat Likhite1, Ganesh Adluru1, Chris Welsh1, and Brent Wilson1
Here we propose a
unique perfusion acquisition that uses one saturation pulse per heartbeat. This
combined with simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) methods allows for acquiring the
same set of slices continuously through the cardiac cycle. This has a number of
advantages including the ability to retrospectively reconstruct an accurate
arterial input function (AIF) and optimized systolic/diastolic frames, or other
portions of the cardiac cycle. The
approach proposed here acquires both k-space rays that reflect the influence of
the saturation pulse and other rays that reflect the steady-state GRE contrast,
and thus is termed the “hybrid” method.
Preliminary
quantitative results including comparisons to more standard methods in two
subjects show the promise of this SMS approach.