The Free-Breathing Motion-Corrected Phase Sensitive Inversion Recovery Sequence Provides Improved Myocardial Fibrosis Evaluation while Significantly Shortening Acquisition Time Compared to Conventional Gradient Echo Sequences.

<p>This article includes original research performed at a US Academic Center related to comparison of three separate Phase-Sensitive Inversion Recovery (PSIR) pulse sequences (Breath-hold Single-Shot SFFP, Breath-hold TurboFLASH, and Free-breathing Motion-Corrected SSFP) evaluating the ability of each PSIR sequence to demonstrate myocardial hyperenhancement.&nbsp; All three PSIR sequences were performed as a part of a cardiac MRI performed on a patient clinically referred for cardiac MRI with and without contrast.&nbsp; A total of 28 patients were examined with the three PSIR sequences.&nbsp; All three PSIR sequences were performed in the short axis 10 &ndash; 25 minutes after intravenous injection of a Gadolinium-based contrast agent.&nbsp;</p> <p>Evaluation of the PSIR sequences ability to detect myocardial late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) was performed by a retrospective review by two blinded, experienced cardiovascular imagers.&nbsp; The review was a qualitative inspection that included grading by a 5-point Likert scale for the sequence&rsquo;s ability to resist motion artifact, image resolution, ability to visualize hyperenhancement, and overall satisfaction.&nbsp; The number of myocardial segments demonstrating LGE was also quantitated, and the acquisition time of each PSIR sequence was performed.</p> <p>To our knowledge this is the first study that compares the 3 available PSIR LGE sequences with a specific attention to acquisition time (TA).&nbsp; Given our initial study resulted in the conclusion that the motion-corrected SSFP PSIR sequence was superior the the TurboFLASH Gradient Echo PSIR sequence in regards to evaluator grading and acquisition time efficiency.</p>