James W. Goldfarb1, 2
1Research and Education, St Francis Hospital, Roslyn, NY, United States; 2Biomedical Engineering, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY, United States
Phantom experiments across a range of T1-values and heart rates demonstrated an underestimation of longer T1-values at higher heart rates using the conventional MOLLI curve fitting equation. A new fitting equation which includes the effect of incomplete magnetization recovery between inversion pulses provided a significantly better fit to the data and consistent estimates of T1-relaxation times over a range of heart-rates. Measurements in 15 subjects showed a heart rate dependence of T1-estimates of blood in the LV cavity. The new equation provided a significantly better fit (p<0.001) for both myocardial and LV blood T1-estimates without heart rate dependence.