Gerald A. Zsido II1, Julio Chirinos2,
Larry Dougherty3, Kevin Koomalsingh4, James J. Pilla2,4,
Walter RT Witschey1,4, Hee Kwon Song2, Joseph H. Gorman
III4, Robert C. Gorman4, Ravinder Reddy1
1Radiology, University of Pennsylvania,
Center for Magnetic Resonance and Optical Imaging, Philadelphia, PA, United
States; 2University of Pennsylvania, Division of Cardiovascular
Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, United States; 3Radiology, University
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; 4Surgery,
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
A
technique for rapid quantification of 1H relaxation times in the human
myocardium during systole and diastole was developed. The technique makes use
of a T1ρ spin locking pulse cluster, followed by a short, multiecho,
radial acquisition, from which k-space-weighted image contrast reconstruction
is performed. An 8-fold acceleration of data acquisition was obtained in
vivo, compared to a similar set of fully sampled data. In 3 subjects, each
scanned 4 times; a significant difference between left ventricular systolic
and diastolic relaxation times was measured.