• Ramkumar Krishnamurthy, Amol Pednekar, Benjamin Cheong, and Raja Muthupillai.
• Department of Bioengineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas, USA.
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2010 Apr 1; 31 (4): 872-80.

PurposeTo obtain high temporal resolution (HTR) magnetic resonance (MR) steady-state free-precession (SSFP) cine cardiac images by using multichannel radiofrequency (RF) hardware and parallel imaging techniques; to study the effect of temporal resolution; and to compare the derived left ventricular (LV) diastolic filling parameters with echocardiographic results.Materials And MethodsHTR images were acquired in 13 healthy volunteers using a 1.5 T scanner with 32 RF channels and sensitivity encoding (SENSE) and k-t broad-use linear-acquisition speedup technique (k-t BLAST) imaging techniques. LV diastolic parameters were calculated and compared to conventional echocardiographic indices such as the isovolumic relaxation time (IVRT) and E/A ratio. The need for HTR was assessed and the MR results were compared with echocardiographic results.ResultsThe HTR (approximately 6-ms) images yielded higher peak filling rates, peak ejection rates, and peak atrial filling rates. A progressive decline in filling and ejection rates was observed with worsening temporal resolution. The IVRTs and E/A ratios measured with MR versus echocardiography were in broad agreement. Also, SENSE and k-t BLAST yielded similar diastolic functional parameters.ConclusionWith SENSE or k-t BLAST and modern hardware, HTR cine images can be obtained. The lower temporal resolutions (30-50 ms) used in clinical practice reduce LV filling rates by (c) 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

23 keywords...

hide…