Three Dimensional Black Blood MRI with Extensive Cardiothoracic Coverage: A Feasibility Study in Healthy Volunteers

Thanh D. Nguyen¹, Keigo Kawaji², Pascal Spincemaille¹, Beatriu Reig¹, Matthew D. Cham¹, Martin R. Prince¹, Yi Wang¹

Black blood (BB) MRI is useful for morphologic assessment in cardiovascular diseases. While a 3D BB imaging sequence of the whole heart and chest similar to the whole-heart coronary artery imaging approach is highly desirable, commonly used BB preparation techniques rely on blood washout and do not work well in large imaging volumes. The purpose of this study is to develop a free-breathing balanced SSFP sequence for BB imaging of the whole chest using flow-independent T2prep inversion recovery preparation. This sequence was found to provide excellent blood suppression and good BB image quality within a large cardiothoracic volume.