Three-Dimensional Myocardial Perfusion MRI Using SW-CG-HYPR

Introduction: First-pass perfusion MRI is a promising technique for detecting ischemic heart disease. However, the diagnostic value of the method is limited by the low spatial coverage, resolution, SNR, and cardiac motion related image artifacts. Parallel imaging methods have been applied in myocardial perfusion MRI, but the spatial coverage and SNR remain limited. Time-resolved data acquisition with Sliding-Window Conjugate-Gradient HighlY constrained back PRojection (1, 2) (SW-CG-HYPR) has been proposed to acquire 2D myocardial perfusion images. This method allows increased spatial coverage, better spatial resolution, and improved SNR (3). To further increase the spatial coverage and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), we developed a 3D sequence combined with inversion recovery (IR) pre-pulse and SW-CG-HYPR. In this work, we compared this new method with the conventional IR Turbo-FLASH protocol for myocardial perfusion in healthy volunteers.