Yanqiu Feng1,
Peter David Gatehouse2, 3, David N. Firmin2,
3, Dudley J. Pennell2, 3, Wufan Chen1,
Taigang He2, 3
1School
of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China; 2Cardiovascular
Biomedical Research Unit, Royal Brompton Hospital, London, United Kingdom; 3National
Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, London, United Kingdom
MRI relaxometry mapping (pixel-by-pixel) is sensitive to the noise especially when high-resolution or rapid scans are required. Considering decay signals as the objects to be averaged, we aimed at improving the precision of T2* mapping through selectively Averaging the Decay signals with Similar Underlying Relaxation rates (ADSUR) before curve fitting. This novel algorithm was tested on T2* mapping of simulation data and an ex vivo heart with iron overload. The results demonstrate that the T2* relaxometry mapping can be improved by filtering the serial images with the proposed ADSUR algorithm, independent of curve-fitting models used.