Abstract #1419

in vivo Cardiac Diffusion MRI: Second Order Motion Compensated, Diffusion-Prepared Balanced Steady State Free Precession (SOMOCO Diffu-Prep BSSFP) with Prospective Navigator-Based Free Breathing

Christopher Nguyen¹,², Zhaoyang Fan¹, Behzad Sharif¹, Rohan Dharmakumar¹, James Min¹, Daniel S. Berman¹, Debiao Li¹,²

¹Biomedical Imaging Research Institute, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States; ²Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, United States

Cardiac diffusion MRI has the potential to identify acute myocardial ischemia and assess the chronic change of myofiber orientation after a myocardial infarction. Cardiac motion and SNR limitations have been the primary challenges for the application of the technique in vivo. We propose a novel application of diffusion-prepared balanced steady-state free precession to include second order motion compensation and navigator-based free breathing. This not only allows for sufficiently high b-values, but also takes advantage of the higher SNR efficiency and image quality of bSSFP. ADC values acquired from the 11 volunteers are consistent with prior in vivo human cardiac diffusion studies.