Combined outer volume suppression and T2 preparation sequence for coronary angiography

• Published in: Magnetic resonance in medicine 2015-12, Vol.74 (6), p.1632-1639
• Main Authors: Luo, Jieying, Addy, Nii Okai, Ingle, R. Reeve, Hargreaves, Brian A., Hu, Bob S., Nishimura, Dwight G., Shin, Taehoon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; cones imaging; Coronary Angiography - methods; coronary MR angiography; Coronary Vessels - anatomy & histology; Female; Humans; Image Enhancement - methods; Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted - methods; Imaging, Three-Dimensional - methods; Magnetic Resonance Angiography - methods; Male; outer volume suppression; radiofrequency pulse design; Sensitivity and Specificity; Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; T2 Prep
• ISSN: 0740-3194; 1522-2594
• DOI: 10.1002/mrm.25575

Purpose To develop a magnetization preparation sequence for simultaneous outer volume suppression (OVS) and T2 weighting in whole‐heart coronary magnetic resonance angiography. Methods A combined OVS and T2 preparation sequence (OVS‐T2 Prep) was designed with a nonselective adiabatic 90° tipdown pulse, two adiabatic 180° refocusing pulses, and a 2D spiral −90° tipup pulse. The OVS‐T2 Prep preserves the magnetization inside an elliptic cylinder with T2 weighting, while saturating the magnetization outside the cylinder. Its performance was tested on phantoms and on 13 normal subjects with coronary magnetic resonance angiography using 3D cones trajectories. Results Phantom studies showed expected T2‐dependent signal amplitude in the spatial passband and suppressed signal in the spatial stopband. In vivo studies with full‐field‐of‐view cones yielded a passband‐to‐stopband signal ratio of 3.18 ± 0.77 and blood‐myocardium contrast‐to‐noise ratio enhancement by a factor of 1.43 ± 0.20 (P