Doubled Scan Efficiency in Multi-Slice Real-Time Cine TrueFISP Cardiac Imaging by Pseudo-Continuous Sliding Slice Acquisition

Andreas Greiser¹, Sven Zuehlsdorff², Edgar Mueller¹

Real-time cine TrueFisp cardiac imaging offers multiple slice acquisitions within a single breathhold. Typically, the steady state preparation is established utilizing a full heartbeat per slice. Hence, only every other heartbeat is used to collect data. A simple elimination of the preparation heartbeats reduces the contrast of blood and myocardium in the first few phases. This work presents a novel method that shifts the slice position between consecutive phases by a distance small compared to slice thickness. High contrast is maintained throughout all cardiac phases providing whole heart coverage within a single breathhold.