Improved delayed enhanced myocardial imaging with T 2 ‐Prep inversion recovery magnetization preparation

Purpose To develop a magnetization preparation method that improves the differentiation of enhancing subendocardial infarction (MI) from ventricular blood for myocardial delayed‐enhancement (DE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Materials and Methods T 2 Prep‐IR is a magnetization preparation pulse that consists of a T 2 preparation (T 2 Prep) followed immediately by a nonselective inversion recovery (IR) pulse. The first imaging excitation is then delayed an inversion time (TI) to allow nulling of normal myocardium in DE study. The amount of T 2 contrast is determined by the effective echo time of the T 2 Prep pulse, TE eff . TE eff is selected to differentiate MI and blood that share similar T 1 values but have different T 2 values. The T 2 Prep‐IR preparation was incorporated into a fast gradient echo sequence to produce an image with both T 1 and T 2 weighting. Simulations predict that this method will generate improved contrast between MI and chamber blood compared to conventional IR methods. Results Comparisons between images acquired using conventional IR and T 2 Prep‐IR in patients with MI indicate that this new approach significantly improves the blood‐MI contrast (122 ± 32% higher than that of IR with P < 0.05). Conclusion Our preliminary patient studies confirm that this preparation is helpful for improved delineation of subendocardial infarction. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2008;28:1280–1286. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.