Wen Li1,2, Jia Zhong1,2, Ming Lu1,2, Mark Griswold1,2, Xin Yu1,2
1Biomedical Engineering Department, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA; 2Case Center for Imaging Research, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
An ECG-triggered saturation recovery Look-Locker (SRLL) method is developed for fast cardiac T1 mapping. High temporal resolution (2.5 minutes) can be achieved without the aid of parallel imaging or EPI. In vitro validation was performed by comparing T1 measurements with that obtained from inversion-recovery method. The in vivo application of this method in delineating the kinetics of manganese-induced T1 shortening was demonstrated in mouse heart in response to intraperitoneal injection of MnCl2. These results suggest that SRLL may provide a rapid T1 mapping method for cardiac MRI using small animal models.