Is 2-D Velocity Encoded Cardiac MRI Accurate at 3T?

Lindsay Marie Zeeb¹, Jeffrey Kaye, Curtis E. Green¹, Trevor J. Andrews, George Ernest Gentchos¹

2-D Velocity encoded MRI (VEC-MRI) has not been widely validated at 3T field strength with regard to optimal imaging parameters and overall accuracy. In this study, 2D VEC-MRI at 3T was tested in vivo over a wide range of imaging parameters and compared to well validated cine functional volumes. VEC-MRI was highly accurate over a wide range of velocity encoded values, orientation of flow and at varying spatial resolution. This suggests that 2D VEC-MRI is highly accurate at 3T field strength and that further efforts to increase signal to noise or spatial resolution are probably not necessary compared to 1.5 T.