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A fast black‐blood sequence for four‐dimensional cardiac manganese‐enhanced MRI in mouse
Author(s) -
Lefrançois William,
Miraux Sylvain,
Calmettes Guillaume,
Pourtau Line,
Franconi JeanMichel,
Diolez Philippe,
Thiaudière Eric
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
nmr in biomedicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.278
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1099-1492
pISSN - 0952-3480
DOI - 10.1002/nbm.1588
Subject(s) - manganese , contrast (vision) , biomedical engineering , contrast to noise ratio , temporal resolution , magnetic resonance imaging , nuclear magnetic resonance , materials science , nuclear medicine , computer science , medicine , physics , radiology , artificial intelligence , image quality , quantum mechanics , metallurgy , image (mathematics)
The increasing number of mouse models of cardiac diseases requires improvements in the current MRI tools. Anatomic and functional cardiac phenotyping by MRI calls for both time and space resolution in three dimensions. Black‐blood contrast is often needed for the accurate delineation of myocardium and chambers, and is consistent with manganese contrast enhancement. In this article, we propose a fast, three‐dimensional, time‐resolved (four‐dimensional), black‐blood MRI sequence that allows mouse heart imaging at 10 periods of the cardiac cycle within 30 min at an isotropic resolution of 200 µm. Two‐dimensional imaging was possible within 80 s. Blood cancellation was achieved by employing bipolar gradients without the use of a double inversion recovery preparation scheme. Saturation slices were added in two‐dimensional experiments for better blood nulling. The rapidity of the two‐dimensional acquisition protocol allowed the measurement of the time course of contrast enhancement on manganese infusion. Owing to the very high contrast‐to‐noise ratio, manganese‐enhanced MRI in four dimensions made possible the accurate assessment of regional cardiac volumes in healthy animals. In experimentally infarcted mice, the size of the ischemic zone could be measured easily with this method. The technique might be valuable in evaluating mouse heart diseases and their follow‐up in longitudinal studies. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.