• El-Sayed H Ibrahim, Robert G Weiss, Matthias Stuber, Dara L Kraitchman, Li Pan, Amy E Spooner, and Nael F Osman.
• Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. sayed@jhu.edu
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2008 Jan 1; 27 (1): 229-38.

PurposeTo develop a breathhold method for black-blood viability imaging of the heart that may facilitate identifying the endocardial border.Materials And MethodsThree stimulated-echo acquisition mode (STEAM) images were obtained almost simultaneously during the same acquisition using three different demodulation values. Two of the three images were used to construct a black-blood image of the heart. The third image was a T(1)-weighted viability image that enabled detection of hyperintense infarcted myocardium after contrast agent administration. The three STEAM images were combined into one composite black-blood viability image of the heart. The composite STEAM images were compared to conventional inversion-recovery (IR) delayed hyperenhanced (DHE) images in nine human subjects studied on a 3T MRI scanner.ResultsSTEAM images showed black-blood characteristics and a significant improvement in the blood-infarct signal-difference to noise ratio (SDNR) when compared to the IR-DHE images (34 +/- 4.1 vs. 10 +/- 2.9, mean +/- standard deviation (SD), P < 0.002). There was sufficient myocardium-infarct SDNR in the STEAM images to accurately delineate infarcted regions. The extracted infarcts demonstrated good agreement with the IR-DHE images.ConclusionThe STEAM black-blood property allows for better delineation of the blood-infarct border, which would enhance the fast and accurate measurement of infarct size.

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