Henk Smit1, A. Ruggiero1, G.N. Doeswijk1, M. Milanesi2, 3, G.C. Houston4, M.R. Bernsen1, G.P. Krestin1, S. Klein1, G. Kotek1
1Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Zuid Holland, Netherlands; 2Agilent Technologies UK Ltd.; 3MRI Lab, Fondazione G. Monasterio-CNR, Pisa, Italy; 4GE Healthcare, Netherlands
This work addresses the feasibility, accuracy and the sensitivity of a novel T1 mapping method in rat myocardium at 7.0 T. With the modified Cine Inversion Recovery (mCINE-IR), the effective TR can be adjusted to allow much higher longitudinal recovery between two subsequent inversions pulses than with conventional methods. Furthermore the magnetization recovery is monitored by the CINE loop acquisition for the entire number of RR intervals within the chosen TR. The results show that mCINE-IR offers a reproducible T1 estimation of both healthy tissue and injected Gd labelled cells in the rat myocardium at 7T making longitudinal studies feasible.