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Free‐breathing, nongated real‐time delayed enhancement MRI of myocardial infarcts: A comparison with conventional delayed enhancement
Author(s) -
Detsky Jay S.,
Graham John J.,
Vijayaraghavan Ram,
Biswas Labonny,
Stainsby Jeffrey A.,
Guttman Michael A.,
Wright Graham A.,
Dick Alexander J.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.21505
Subject(s) - medicine , nuclear medicine , ventricle , gradient echo , magnetic resonance imaging , cardiology , radiology
Purpose To compare a free‐breathing, nongated, and black‐blood real‐time delayed enhancement (RT‐DE) sequence to the conventional inversion recovery gradient echo (IR‐GRE) sequence for delayed enhancement MRI. Materials and Methods Twenty‐three patients with suspected myocardial infarct (MI) were examined using both the IR‐GRE and RT‐DE imaging sequences. The sensitivity and specificity of RT‐DE for detecting MI, using IR‐GRE as the gold standard, was determined. The contrast‐to‐noise ratios (CNR) between the two techniques were also compared. Results RT‐DE had a high sensitivity and specificity (94% and 98%, respectively) for identifying MI. The total acquisition time to image the entire left ventricle was significantly shorter using RT‐DE than IR‐GRE (5.6 ± 0.9 versus 11.5 ± 1.9 min). RT‐DE had a slightly lower infarct‐myocardium CNR but a higher infarct‐blood CNR than IR‐GRE imaging. Compared with IR‐GRE, RT‐DE accurately measured total infarct sizes. Conclusion RT‐DE can be used for delayed enhancement imaging during free‐breathing and without cardiac gating. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2008;28:621–625. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.