Elizabeth R. Jenista1, David C. Wendell1, Deneen M. Spatz1, Christoph Jensen1, Lowie MR Van Assche1, Enn-Ling Chen1, Stephen S. Darty1, Raymond J. Kim1, Wolfgang G. Re
1Duke Cardiovascular MR Center, Duke University, Durham, NC, United States; 2Cardiovascular MR R&D, Siemens Healthcare, Chapel Hill, NC, United States
We present a highly effective and robust fat suppression technique for T1-weighted inversion recovery (IR) imaging such as delayed enhancement, that is compatible with phase sensitive IR (PSIR) imaging. It combines a double-SPAIR (Spectral Selection Attenuated Inversion Recovery) module with a fat-TI minimization and a phase sensitive readout. It is called phase sensitive fat darkening by TI-minimized double SPAIR, PHATTI DeSPAIR. We compared its performance to standard chemically selective fat saturation in 13 patients with ischemic and non-ischemic heart disease, at 1.5T and 3T. Fat suppression efficiency was extremely strong compared to the standard technique, without affecting signal to noise.