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BACKGROUND: This study aims to examine scar detectability using dark-blood late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) with simplified timing scheme and fixed parameters comparing to two conventional bright-blood approaches in patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease. METHODS: Three LGE techniques were performed in all patients with known or suspected coronary artery disease at 3 T: dark blood two-dimensional (2D) phase-sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) preceded with a T2-preparation pulse (DB-LGE), conventional three-dimensional (3D) gradient-echo inversion recovery (3D-IR) and conventional 2D PSIR. Timing parameters in DB-LGE were tested in five clinically confirmed coronary artery disease patients with scars and fixed for the rest of the study. Two independent readers evaluated images at both patient and segment levels. Image quality and contrast ratio between scar and adjacent tissues were assessed. Concordance between the three techniques and detection rate based on expert consensus were reported. RESULTS: Forty-six patients were recruited in the study (average age 66.8 years, 69.6% male). DB-LGE demonstrated superior image quality (P=0.001 vs. 3D-IR) and scar-to-blood contrast ratio (P

Purpose Conventional cardiac T2 mapping suffers from the partial-voluming effect in the endocardium and epicardium due to the co-presence of intra-cavity blood and epicardial fat. The aim of the study is to develop a novel single-breath-hold Fat-Saturated Dark-Blood (FSDB) cardiac T2-mapping technique to mitigate the partial-voluming and improve T2 accuracy. Methods The proposed FSDB T2-mapping technique combines T2-prepared bSSFP, a novel use of double inversion-recovery with heart-rate-adaptive TI, and spectrally-selective fat saturation to mitigate partial-voluming from both the blood and fat. FSDB T2 mapping was compared to conventional T2 mapping via simulations, phantom imaging, healthy-subject imaging (n = 8), and patient imaging (n = 7). In the healthy subjects, a high-resolution coplanar anatomical imaging was performed to provide a gold standard for segmentation of endocardium and epicardium. T2 maps were registered to the gold standard image to evaluate any inter-layer T2 difference, which is a surrogate for partial-voluming. Results Simulations and phantom imaging showed that FSDB T2 mapping was accurate in a range of heartrates, off-resonance, and T2 values, and blood/fat reasonably nulled in a range of heartrates. In healthy subjects, FSDB T2 mapping showed similar T2 values over different myocardial layers in all 3 short-axis slices (e.g. basal epicardial/mid-wall/endocardial T2 = 42 ± 2 ms/41 ± 1 ms/42 ± 1 ms), whereas conventional T2 mapping showed considerably increased T2 in the endocardium and epicardium (e.g. basal epicardial/mid-wall/endocardial T2 = 48 ± 3 ms/43 ± 1 ms/49 ± 3 ms). The homogeneous T2 in the FSDB T2 mapping increased the apparent LV-wall thickness by 25–41% compared with the conventional method. Conclusions The proposed technique improves accuracy of myocardial T2 mapping against partial-voluming associated with both fat and blood, facilitating a multi-layer T2 evaluation of the myocardium. This technique may improve utility of cardiac T2 mapping in diseases affecting the endocardium and epicardium, and in patients with a small heart.

Background Intramyocardial hemorrhage (IMH) within myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with major adverse cardiovascular events. Bright-blood T2*-based cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) has emerged as the reference standard for non-invasive IMH detection. Despite this, the dark-blood T2*-based CMR is becoming interchangeably used with bright-blood T2*-weighted CMR in both clinical and preclinical settings for IMH detection. To date however, the relative merits of dark-blood T2*-weighted with respect to bright-blood T2*-weighted CMR for IMH characterization has not been studied. We investigated the diagnostic capacity of dark-blood T2*-weighted CMR against bright-blood T2*-weighted CMR for IMH characterization in clinical and preclinical settings. Materials and methods Hemorrhagic MI patients (n = 20) and canines (n = 11) were imaged in the acute and chronic phases at 1.5 and 3 T with dark- and bright-blood T2*-weighted CMR. Imaging characteristics (Relative signal-to-noise (SNR), Relative contrast-to-noise (CNR), IMH Extent) and diagnostic performance (sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, area-under-the-curve, and inter-observer variability) of dark-blood T2*-weighted CMR for IMH characterization were assessed relative to bright-blood T2*-weighted CMR. Results At both clinical and preclinical settings, compared to bright-blood T2*-weighted CMR, dark-blood T2*-weighted images had significantly lower SNR, CNR and reduced IMH extent (all p p Conclusion While IMH can be visible on dark-blood T2*-weighted CMR, the overall conspicuity of IMH is significantly reduced compared to that observed in bright-blood T2*-weighted images, across infarct age in clinical and preclinical settings at 1.5 and 3 T. Hence, bright-blood T2*-weighted CMR would be preferable for clinical use since dark-blood T2*-weighted CMR carries the potential to misclassify hemorrhagic MIs as non-hemorrhagic MIs.

Background Conventional bright-blood late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) often suffers from poor scar-to-blood contrast due to the bright blood pool adjacent to the enhanced scar tissue. Recently, a dark-blood LGE method was developed which increases scar-to-blood contrast without using additional magnetization preparation. Purpose We aim to histopathologically validate this dark-blood LGE method in a porcine animal model with induced myocardial infarction (MI). Study type Prospective. Animal model Thirteen female Yorkshire pigs. Field strength/sequence 1.5 T, two-dimensional phase-sensitive inversion-recovery radiofrequency-spoiled turbo field-echo. Assessment MI was experimentally induced by transient coronary artery occlusion. At 1-week and 7-week post-infarction, in-vivo cardiac MRI was performed including conventional bright-blood and novel dark-blood LGE. Following the second MRI examination, the animals were sacrificed, and histopathology was obtained. Matching LGE slices and histopathology samples were selected based on anatomical landmarks. Independent observers, while blinded to other data, manually delineated the endocardial, epicardial, and infarct borders on either LGE images or histopathology samples. The percentage of infarcted left-ventricular myocardium was calculated for both LGE methods on a per-slice basis, and compared with histopathology as reference standard. Contrast-to-noise ratios were calculated for both LGE methods at 1-week and 7-week post-infarction. Statistical tests Pearson's correlation coefficient and paired-sample t-tests were used. Significance was set at P Results A combined total of 24 matched LGE and histopathology slices were available for histopathological validation. Dark-blood LGE demonstrated a high level of agreement compared to histopathology with no significant bias (-0.03%, P = 0.75). In contrast, bright-blood LGE showed a significant bias of -1.57% (P = 0.03) with larger 95% limits of agreement than dark-blood LGE. Image analysis demonstrated significantly higher scar-to-blood contrast for dark-blood LGE compared to bright-blood LGE, at both 1-week and 7-weeks post-infarction. Data conclusion Dark-blood LGE without additional magnetization preparation provides superior visualization and quantification of ischemic scar compared to the current in vivo reference standard. Level of evidence 1 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 2.

Purpose: In perfusion cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), ischemic burden predicts adverse prognosis and is often used to guide revascularization. Ischemic scar tissue can cause stress perfusion defects that do not represent myocardial ischemia. Dark-blood late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) methods detect more scar than conventional bright-blood LGE, however, the impact on the myocardial ischemic burden estimation is unknown and evaluated in this study. Methods: Forty patients with CMR stress perfusion defects and ischemic scar on both dark-blood and bright-blood LGE were included. For dark-blood LGE, phase sensitive inversion recovery imaging with left ventricular blood pool nulling was used. Ischemic scar burden was quantified for both methods using >5 standard deviations above remote myocardium. Perfusion defects were manually contoured, and the myocardial ischemic burden was calculated by subtracting the ischemic scar burden from the perfusion defect burden. Results: Ischemic scar burden by dark-blood LGE was higher than bright-blood LGE (13.3 +/- 7.4% vs. 10.3 +/- 7.1%, p < 0.001). Dark-blood LGE derived myocardial ischemic burden was lower compared with bright-blood LGE (15.6% (IQR: 10.3 to 22.0) vs. 19.3 (10.9 to 25.5), median difference -2.0%, p < 0.001) with a mean bias of -2.8% (95% confidence intervals: -4.0 to -1.6%) and a large effect size (r = 0.62). Conclusion: Stress perfusion defects are associated with higher ischemic scar burden using dark-blood LGE compared with bright-blood LGE, which leads to a lower estimation of the myocardial ischemic burden. The prognostic value of using a dark-blood LGE derived ischemic burden to guide revascularization is unknown and warrants further investigation.

Diagnosis and management of multiple ventricular septal defects still remain a challenging task. Although many new diagnostic modalities have been used for the perioperative diagnosis of ventricular septal defects, the discovery of residual or additional shunts in the postoperative period is not uncommon. We report a case where we observed an undiagnosed additional ventricular septal defect shunting deoxygenated dark blood into the aortic root vent during deairing of the heart, which was confirmed on transesophageal echocardiography and addressed with reinstitution of cardiopulmonary bypass.

For almost 20 years, late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) has been the reference standard for the non-invasive assessment of myocardial viability. Since the blood pool often appears equally bright as the enhanced scar regions, detection of subendocardial scar patterns can be challenging. Various novel LGE methods have been proposed that null or suppress the blood signal by employing additional magnetization preparation mechanisms. This review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of these dark-blood LGE methods, discussing the magnetization preparation schemes and findings in phantom, preclinical, and clinical studies. Finally, conclusions on the current evidence and limitations are drawn and new avenues for future research are discussed. Dark-blood LGE methods are a promising new tool for non-invasive assessment of myocardial viability. For a mainstream adoption of dark-blood LGE, however, clinical availability and ease of use are crucial.

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: None. Introduction The extent of ischemic scar detected by Cardiac Magnetic Resonance (CMR) with late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) is linked with long-term prognosis, but scar quantification is time-consuming. Deep Learning (DL) approaches appear promising in CMR segmentation. Purpose: To train and apply a deep learning approach to dark blood (DB) CMR-LGE for ischemic scar segmentation, comparing results to 4-Standard Deviation (4-SD) semi-automated method. Methods: We trained and validated a dual neural network infrastructure on a dataset of DB-LGE short-axis stacks, acquired at 1.5T from 33 patients with ischemic scar. The DL architectures were an evolution of the U-Net Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), using data augmentation to increase generalization. The CNNs worked together to identify and segment 1) the myocardium and 2) areas of LGE. The first CNN simultaneously cropped the region of interest (RoI) according to the bounding box of the heart and calculated the area of myocardium. The cropped RoI was then processed by the second CNN, which identified the overall LGE area. The extent of scar was calculated as the ratio of the two areas. For comparison, endo- and epi-cardial borders were manually contoured and scars segmented by a 4-SD technique with a validated software. Results: The two U-Net networks were implemented with two free and open-source software library for machine learning. We performed 5-fold cross-validation over a dataset of 108 and 385 labelled CMR images of the myocardium and scar, respectively. We obtained high performance (> ∼0.85) as measured by the Intersection over Union metric (IoU) on the training sets, in the case of scar segmentation. With regards to heart recognition, the performance was lower (> ∼0.7), although improved (∼ 0.75) by detecting the cardiac area instead of heart boundaries. On the validation set, performances oscillated between 0.8 and 0.85 for scar tissue recognition, and dropped to ∼0.7 for myocardium segmentation. We believe that underrepresented samples and noise might be affecting the overall performances, so that additional data might be beneficial. Figure1: examples of heart segmentation (upper left panel: training; upper right panel: validation) and of scar segmentation (lower left panel: training; lower right panel: validation). Conclusion: Our CNNs show promising results in automatically segmenting LV and quantify ischemic scars on DB-LGE-CMR images. The performances of our method can further improve by expanding the data set used for the training. If implemented in a clinical routine, this process can speed up the CMR analysis process and aid in the clinical decision-making. Abstract Figure.

Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Foundation. Main funding source(s): British Heart Foundation Background In patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), increasing myocardial ischaemic burden (MIB) is a strong predictor of adverse events. When measured by cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), a MIB ≥12.5% is considered significant and often used as a threshold to guide revascularisation. Ischaemic scar can cause stress perfusion defects which do not represent ischaemia and should be excluded from the MIB calculation. Conventional bright-blood late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) is able to identify ischaemic scar but can suffer from poor scar-to-blood contrast, making accurate assessment of scar volume difficult. Dark-blood LGE methods increase scar-to-blood contrast and improve scar conspicuity which may impact the calculated scar burden and consequently the estimation of MIB when read in conjunction with perfusion images. Purpose To evaluate the impact of dark-blood LGE versus conventional bright-blood LGE on the estimation of MIB in patients with CAD. Methods 37 patients with suspected or known CAD who had evidence of CMR stress perfusion defects and ischaemic scar on LGE imaging were recruited. Patients underwent adenosine stress perfusion imaging followed by dark-blood LGE then conventional bright-blood LGE imaging at 3T. For dark-blood LGE, phase sensitive inversion recovery imaging with a shorter inversion time to null the LV blood-pool was used without any additional magnetization preparation. For each patient, three short-axis LGE slices were selected to match the three perfusion slice locations. Images were anonymised and analysed in random order. Ischaemic scar burden (ISB) was quantified for both LGE methods using a threshold >5 standard deviations above remote myocardium. Perfusion defect burden (PDB) was quantified by manual contouring of perfusion defects. MIB was calculated by subtracting the ISB from the PDB. Results MIB calculated using dark-blood LGE was 19% less compared to bright-blood LGE (15.7 ± 15.2% vs 19.4 ± 15.2%, p < 0.001). There was a strong positive correlation between the two LGE methods (rs = 0.960, p < 0.001, Figure 1A). Bland-Altman analysis revealed a significant fixed bias (mean bias = -3.6%, bias 95% CI: -2.6 to -4.7%, 95% limits of agreement: -9.8 to 2.5%) with no proportional bias (Figure 1B). MIB was calculated ≥12.5% and Conclusions The use of dark-blood LGE in conjunction with perfusion imaging results in a lower estimate of MIB compared to conventional bright-blood LGE. This can cause disagreement around the threshold of clinically significant ischaemia which could impact clinical management in patients being considered for coronary revascularisation. Abstract Figure. Linear regression with corresponding B&A

ObjectivesFree-breathing 3-dimensional (3D) late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques with high isotropic resolution and dark-blood contrast may optimize the delineation of myocardial scar patterns. The extended acquisition times required for such scans, however, are paralleled by a declining contrast agent concentration. Consequently, the optimal inversion time (TI) is continuously increasing. We hypothesize that a steadily increasing (dynamic) TI can compensate for this effect and can lead to improved blood nulling to optimize the dark-blood contrast. Materials and MethodsFifty consecutive patients with previous cardiac arrhythmias, scheduled for high-resolution 3D LGE MRI, were prospectively enrolled between October 2017 and February 2020. Free-breathing 3D dark-blood LGE MRI with high isotropic resolution (1.6 x 1.6 x 1.6 mm) was performed using a conventional fixed TI (n = 25) or a dynamic TI (n = 25). The average increase in blood nulling TI per minute was obtained from Look-Locker scans before and after the 3D acquisition in the first fixed TI group. This average increment in TI was used as input to calculate the dynamic increment of the initial blood nulling TI value as set in the second dynamic TI group. Regions of interest were drawn in the left ventricular blood pool to assess mean signal intensity as a measure for blood pool suppression. Overall image quality, observer confidence, and scar demarcation were scored on a 3-point scale. ResultsThree-dimensional dark-blood LGE data sets were successfully acquired in 46/50 patients (92%). The calculated average TI increase of 2.3 +/- 0.5 ms/min obtained in the first fixed TI group was incorporated in the second dynamic TI group and led to a significant decrease of 72% in the mean blood pool signal intensity compared with the fixed TI group (P < 0.001). Overall image quality (P = 0.02), observer confidence (P = 0.02), and scar demarcation (P = 0.01) significantly improved using a dynamic TI. ConclusionsA steadily increasing dynamic TI improves blood pool suppression for optimized dark-blood contrast and increases observer confidence in free-breathing 3D dark-blood LGE MRI with high isotropic resolution.

Recently developed dark-blood techniques such as Flow-Independent Dark-blood DeLayed Enhancement (FIDDLE) allow simultaneous visualization of tissue contrast-enhancement and blood-pool suppression. Critical to FIDDLE is the magnetization preparation, which accentuates differences between myocardium and blood-pool. Here, we compared magnetization transfer (MT)-preparation and T2-preparation for use with FIDDLE. Variants of FIDDLE were developed with MT- or T2-preparation modules and tested in 35 patients (11 at 1.5 T, 24 at 3 T). Images were acquired with each FIDDLE variant in an interleaved fashion 10 minutes after gadolinium administration with otherwise identical acquisition parameters. Images were visually and quantitatively assessed for artifacts and differences in right ventricle to left ventricle (RV-to-LV) blood-pool suppression. Bright artifacts, reflecting incomplete blood-pool suppression, were frequently observed in the left atrium with T2-preparation FIDDLE at 1.5 and 3 T (82% and up to 100% of patients, respectively). MT-preparation FIDDLE resulted in fewer patients with artifacts (0% at 1.5 T, 22% at 3 T; P < .01). Left atrial blood-pool signal was significantly more homogeneous with MT-preparation than with T2-preparation at 1.5 and 3 T (P < .001 for all comparisons). Visibly different RV-to-LV blood-pool suppression was observed with T2-preparation in 36% of patients at 1.5 T and up to 94% at 3 T. In these patients, RV blood-pool signal was elevated, reducing the conspicuity of the myocardial-RV blood-pool border. Conversely, there were no visible differences in RV-to-LV blood-pool suppression with MT-preparation. Quantitative assessment of differences in blood-pool suppression and blood-pool artifacts was consistent with visual analyses. We conclude that for dark blood-blood delayed-enhancement imaging of the heart, MT-preparation results in fewer bright blood-pool artifacts and more uniform blood-pool suppression than T2-preparation.

Background To compare the Self-referenced and Referenced measurement methods in assessing basilar artery (BA) atherosclerotic plaque employing dark blood high-resolution MRI at 3 Tesla. Methods Forty patients with > 20% stenosis as identified by conventional MRA were recruited and evaluated on a 3 Tesla MRI system. The outer wall, inner wall and lumen areas of maximal lumen narrowing site and the outer wall and lumen areas of sites that were proximal and distal to the maximal lumen narrowing site were manually traced. Plaque area (PA), stenosis rate (SR) and percent plaque burden (PPB) were calculated using the Self-referenced and Referenced measurement methods, respectively. To assess intra-observer reproducibility, BA plaque was measured twice with a 2-week interval in between measurements. Results Thirty-seven patients were included in the final analysis. There were no significant differences in PA, SR and PPB measurements between the two methods. The intra-class coefficients and coefficient of variations (CV) ranged from 0.976 to 0.990 and from 3.73 to 5.61% for the Self-referenced method and ranged from 0.928 to 0.971 and from 4.64 to 9.95% for the Referenced method, respectively. Both methods are effective in the evaluation of BA plaque. However, the CVs of the Self-referenced method is lower than the Referenced measurement method. Moreover, Bland-Altman plots showed that the Self-referenced method has a narrower interval than the Referenced measurement method. Conclusions The Self-referenced method is better and more convenient for evaluating BA plaque, and it may serve as a promising method for evaluation of basilar atherosclerotic plaque.

BACKGROUND Cardiac dark-blood turbo spin-echo (TSE) imaging is sensitive to through-plane motion, resulting in myocardial signal reduction. PURPOSE To propose and validate reverse double inversion-recovery (RDIR)-a dark-blood preparation with improved motion robustness for the cardiac dark-blood TSE sequence. STUDY TYPE Prospective. POPULATION Healthy volunteers (n = 10) and patients (n = 20). FIELD STRENGTH 1.5T (healthy volunteers) and 3T (patients). ASSESSMENT Compared to double inversion recovery (DIR), RDIR swaps the two inversion pulses in time and places the slice-selective 180° in late-diastole of the previous cardiac cycle to minimize slice misregistration. RDIR and DIR were performed in the same left-ventricular basal short-axis slice. Healthy subjects were imaged with two preparation slice thicknesses, 110% and 200%, while patients were imaged using a 200% slice thickness only. Images were assessed quantitatively, by measuring the myocardial signal heterogeneity and the extent of dropout, and also qualitatively on a 5-point scale. STATISTICAL TESTS Quantitative and qualitative data were assessed with Student's t-test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test, respectively. RESULTS In healthy subjects, RDIR with 110% slice thickness significantly reduced signal heterogeneity in both the left ventricle (LV) and right ventricle (RV) (LV: P = 0.006, RV: P < 0.0001) and the extent of RV dropout (P < 0.0001), while RDIR with 200% slice thickness significantly reduced RV signal heterogeneity (P = 0.001) and the extent of RV dropout (P = 0.0002). In patients, RDIR significantly reduced RV myocardial signal heterogeneity (0.31 vs. 0.43; P = 0.003) and the extent of RV dropout (24% vs. 46%; P = 0.0005). LV signal heterogeneity exhibited a trend towards improvement with RDIR (0.12 vs. 0.16; P = 0.06). Qualitative evaluation showed a significant improvement of LV and RV visualization in RDIR compared to DIR (LV: P = 0.04, RV: P = 0.0007) and a significantly improved overall image quality (P = 0.03). DATA CONCLUSION RDIR TSE is less sensitive to through-plane motion, potentiating increased clinical utility for black-blood TSE. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE 1 Technical Efficacy: Stage 1 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018;47:1498-1508.

Background Conventional bright blood late gadolinium enhancement (bright blood LGE) imaging is a routine cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) technique offering excellent contrast between areas of LGE and normal myocardium. However, contrast between LGE and blood is frequently poor. Dark blood LGE (DB LGE) employs an inversion recovery T2 preparation to suppress the blood pool, thereby increasing the contrast between the endocardium and blood. The objective of this study is to compare the diagnostic utility of a novel DB phase sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) LGE CMR sequence to standard bright blood PSIR LGE. Methods One hundred seventy-two patients referred for clinical CMR were scanned. A full left ventricle short axis stack was performed using both techniques, varying which was performed first in a 1:1 ratio. Two experienced observers analyzed all bright blood LGE and DB LGE stacks, which were randomized and anonymized. A scoring system was devised to quantify the presence and extent of gadolinium enhancement and the confidence with which the diagnosis could be made. Results A total of 2752 LV segments were analyzed. There was very good inter-observer correlation for quantifying LGE. DB LGE analysis found 41.5% more segments that exhibited hyperenhancement in comparison to bright blood LGE (248/2752 segments (9.0%) positive for LGE with bright blood; 351/2752 segments (12.8%) positive for LGE with DB; p

Purpose To develop a dark blood–late gadolinium enhancement (DB-LGE) sequence that improves scar–blood contrast and delineation of scar region. Methods The DB-LGE sequence uses an inversion pulse followed by T2 magnetization preparation to suppress blood and normal myocardium. Time delays inserted after preparation pulses and T2-magnetization-prep duration are used to adjust tissue contrast. Selection of these parameters was optimized using numerical simulations and phantom experiments. We evaluated DB-LGE in 9 swine and 42 patients (56 ± 14 years, 33 male). Improvement in scar–blood contrast and overall image quality was subjectively evaluated by two independent readers (1 = poor, 4 = excellent). The signal ratios among scar, blood, and myocardium were compared. Results Simulations and phantom studies demonstrated that simultaneous nulling of myocardium and blood can be achieved by selecting appropriate timing parameters. The scar–blood contrast score was significantly higher for DB-LGE (P 0.05). Scar–blood signal ratios for DB-LGE versus LGE were 5.0 ± 2.8 versus 1.5 ± 0.5 (P < 0.001) for patients, and 2.2 ± 0.7 versus 1.0 ± 0.4 (P = 0.0023) for animals. Scar–myocardium signal ratios were 5.7 ± 2.9 versus 6.3 ± 2.6 (P = 0.35) for patients, and 3.7 ± 1.1 versus 4.1 ± 2.0 (P = 0.60) for swine. Conclusions The DB-LGE sequence simultaneously reduces normal myocardium and blood signal intensity, thereby enhancing scar–blood contrast while preserving scar–myocardium contrast. Magn Reson Med 79:351–360, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

Contrast enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (CE-MRA) is limited by long acquisition time and contrast exposure in aortic emergencies. To compare the effcacy of dark blood (DB) and bright blood (BB) noncontrast sequences with the gold standard CE-MRA using a novel protocol for performing consistent thoracic aortic measurements and thoracic aortic pathologies identifications. A total of 66 patients with suspected or known thoracic aortic pathology who underwent CE-MRA underwent DB and BB imaging prior to CE-MRA for planning purposes. Aortic dimension was measured at 10 standard reference points in the ascending, arch, and descending aorta. Detection of aortic pathologies was recorded individually for each noncontrast sequence. When comparing the CE-MRA to the DB images and CE-MRA to the BB images, a majority of the measurement differences were less than or equal to 2 mm or resulted in no change of diagnostic class (95% for CE-MRA vs. DB and 96% for CE-MRA vs. BB). Of the patients who had major changes in diagnostic class (e.g., changes in two or three classes), the absolute measurements were not clinically significant in any given patient to warrant a change in management. Individually, the DB and BB sequences allowed for accurate recognition of all 47 aortic pathologies. DB and BB sequences produced comparable and consistent measurements of the thoracic aorta when compared with CE-MRA. In a situation where CE-MRA is not readily available or contraindicated, noncontrast MRA using our protocol is a reliable alternative to CE-MRA for assessment of aortic pathologies.

BACKGROUND: For two decades, bright-blood late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) has been considered the reference standard for the non-invasive assessment of myocardial viability. While bright-blood LGE can clearly distinguish areas of myocardial infarction from viable myocardium, it often suffers from poor scar-to-blood contrast, making subendocardial scar difficult to detect. Recently, we proposed a novel dark-blood LGE approach that increases scar-to-blood contrast and thereby improves subendocardial scar conspicuity. In the present study we sought to assess the clinical value of this novel approach in a large patient cohort with various non-congenital ischemic and non-ischemic cardiomyopathies on both 1.5 T and 3 T CMR scanners of different vendors.METHODS: Three hundred consecutive patients referred for clinical CMR were randomly assigned to a 1.5 T or 3 T scanner. An entire short-axis stack and multiple long-axis views were acquired using conventional phase sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) LGE with TI set to null myocardium (bright-blood) and proposed PSIR LGE with TI set to null blood (dark-blood), in a randomized order. The bright-blood LGE and dark-blood LGE images were separated, anonymized, and interpreted in a random order at different time points by one of five independent observers. Each case was analyzed for the type of scar, per-segment transmurality, papillary muscle enhancement, overall image quality, observer confidence, and presence of right ventricular scar and intraventricular thrombus.RESULTS: Dark-blood LGE detected significantly more cases with ischemic scar compared to conventional bright-blood LGE (97 vs 89, p = 0.008), on both 1.5 T and 3 T, and led to a significantly increased total scar burden (3.3 ± 2.4 vs 3.0 ± 2.3 standard AHA segments, p = 0.015). Overall image quality significantly improved using dark-blood LGE compared to bright-blood LGE (81.3% vs 74.0% of all segments were of highest diagnostic quality, p = 0.006). Furthermore, dark-blood LGE led to significantly higher observer confidence (confident in 84.2% vs 78.4%, p = 0.033).CONCLUSIONS: The improved detection of ischemic scar makes the proposed dark-blood LGE method a valuable diagnostic tool in the non-invasive assessment of myocardial scar. The applicability in routine clinical practice is further strengthened, as the present approach, in contrast to other recently proposed dark- and black-blood LGE techniques, is readily available without the need for scanner adjustments, extensive optimizations, or additional training.

BACKGROUND: Late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging was validated for diagnosis and quantification of myocardial infarction (MI). Despite good contrast between scar and normal myocardium, contrast between blood pool and myocardial scar can be limited. Dark blood LGE sequences attempt to overcome this issue. PURPOSE: To evaluate T1 rho (T1 ρ)-prepared dark blood sequence and compare to blood nulled (BN) phase sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR) and standard myocardium nulled (MN) PSIR for detection and quantification of scar. STUDY TYPE: Prospective. POPULATION: Thirty patients with prior MI. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: Patients underwent identical 1.5 T MRI protocols. Following routine LGE imaging, a slice with scar, remote myocardium, and blood pool was selected. PSIR LGE was repeated with inversion time set to MN, to BN, and T1 ρ FIDDLE (flow-independent dark-blood delayed enhancement) in random order. ASSESSMENT: Three observers. Qualitative assessment of confidence scores in scar detection and degree of transmurality. Quantitative assessment of myocardial scar mass (grams), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) measurements between scar, blood pool, and myocardium. STATISTICAL TESTS: Repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) with Bonferroni correction, coefficient of variation, and the Cohen κ statistic. RESULTS: CNRscar-blood was significantly increased for both BN (27.1 ± 10.4) and T1 ρ (30.2 ± 15.1) compared with MN (15.3 ± 8.4 P < 0.001 for both sequences). There was no significant difference in CNRscar-myo between BN (55.9 ± 17.3) and MN (51.1 ± 17.8 P = 0.512); both had significantly higher CNRscar-myo compared with the T1 ρ (42.6 ± 16.9 P = 0.007 and P = 0.014, respectively). No significant difference in scar size between LGE methods: MN (2.28 ± 1.58 g) BN (2.16 ± 1.57 g) and T1 ρ (2.29 ± 2.5 g). Confidence scores were significantly higher for BN (3.87 ± 0.346) compared with MN (3.1 ± 0.76 P < 0.001) and T1 ρ (3.20 ± 0.71 P < 0.001). DATA CONCLUSION: PSIR with inversion time (TI) set for blood nulling and the T1 ρ LGE sequence demonstrated significantly higher scar to blood CNR compared with routine MN. PSIR with TI set for blood nulling demonstrated significantly higher reader confidence scores compared with routine MN and T1 ρ LGE, suggesting routine adoption of a BN PSIR approach might be appropriate for LGE imaging. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 Technical Efficacy: Stage 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2018.

Background Delayed presentation of orbital trauma as an acute subperiosteal hematoma. Case report A 12-year-boy developed sudden painful abaxial proptosis of the left eyeball 15 days after blunt trauma over the forehead. On contrast-enhanced computed tomography, a heterogeneous, hypodense, non-enhancing mass with biconvex contour was seen adjacent to the orbital roof. Direct needle drainage was performed and about 10 mL dark blood was aspirated. Proptosis reduced immediately and resolved completely at 2 weeks follow-up. Why Should an Emergency Physician Be Aware of This? Sudden proptosis with no immediate history of trauma can be alarming for the emergency physician. Familiarity with this clinical entity and early drainage can decrease morbidity.

Priapism is defined as a prolonged erection of the penis for at least 4 h without sexual stimulation. It may occur in all age groups. Drugs are the most common cause in adults. A 64-year-old male patient was admitted to the emergency department with painful erection that had lasted for 2 days without sexual stimulation. Our patient had used pregabalin for around 1 year due to neuropathic pain. The dose of the drug was increased as his pain scaled up recently. Approximately 30 cc of dark blood was drained from the corpus cavernosum with an 18 Gauge needle in the emergency department. Cavernous blood aspiration and irrigation resulted in significant recovery and relief. We present this report of priapism associated with pregabalin as it is a rare case with insufficient number of studies in the literature.

Purpose We aimed to evaluate the interscan, intraobserver, and interobserver reproducibility of basilar atherosclerotic plaque employing dark blood high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HR-MRI) at 3 Tesla. Methods Sixteen patients (14 males and 2 females) with > 30% basilar stenosis as identified by conventional magnetic resonance angiography were prospectively recruited for scan and rescan examinations on a 3 Tesla MRI system using T2-weighted turbo spin-echo protocol. Two observers independently measured the areas of vessels and lumens. Wall area was derived by subtracting the lumen area from the vessel area. Areas of vessels, lumens and walls were compared for the evaluation of interscan variability of basilar plaque. To assess the intraobserver variability, one observer reevaluated all the images of the first scan after a 4-week interval. Results Fourteen patients were included in the final analysis. No clinically significant difference was observed for interscan, intraobserver, and interobserver measurements. The intraclass correlations for vessel, lumen, and wall areas were excellent and ranged from 0.973 to 0.981 for the interscan measurements, 0.997 to 0.998 for the intraobserver measurements and 0.979 to 0.985 for the interobserver measurements. The coefficients of variation for quantitative basilar morphology measurements were 4.31%-10.35% for the interscan measurements, 1.41%-4.62% for the intraobserver measurements and 3.79%-8.46% for the interobserver measurements. Compared with the interscan and interobserver measurements, narrow intervals of the scatterplots were observed for the intraobserver measurements by Bland-Altman plots. Conclusion Basilar atherosclerotic plaque imaging demonstrates excellent reproducibility at 3 Tesla. The study proves that dark blood HR-MRI may serve as a reliable tool for clinical studies focused on the progression and treatment response of basilar atherosclerosis.

Background Conventional bright blood late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging offers excellent contrast between areas of infarction and normal myocardium. However, contrast between subendocardial scar and blood is frequently poor. Dark blood LGE (DB LGE) employs an inversion recovery T2 preparation to suppress the blood pool, increasing contrast between the endocardium and blood. This study compares the diagnostic utility of a novel DB LGE sequence to standard bright blood LGE. Methods 172 patients were scanned. A full left ventricle short axis stack was performed using both techniques. Two observers scored presence and extent of LGE, along with how confident they were in their diagnoses, for all patients. Results 2752 LV segments were analysed. DB LGE found 41.5% more segments that showed LGE in comparison to bright blood (figure 1). DB imaging also allowed observers to be more confident when diagnosing LGE, assigning high confidence to 84.9% of DB LGE segments but only 62.1% when using bright blood. DB LGE identified missed myocardial infarctions in 18 patients with negative bright blood scans. Conclusions DB LGE imaging significantly increases LGE detection compared to standard bright blood imaging. It also increases observer confidence, particularly for subendocardial LGE. This may have important clinical implications for troponin-positive events with unobstructed coronaries.

This study introduced and validated a novel flow-independent delayed enhancement technique that shows hyperenhanced myocardium while simultaneously suppressing blood-pool signal.The diagnosis and assessment of myocardial infarction (MI) is crucial in determining clinical management and prognosis. Although delayed enhancement cardiac magnetic resonance (DE-CMR) is an in vivo reference standard for imaging MI, an important limitation is poor delineation between hyperenhanced myocardium and bright LV cavity blood-pool, which may cause many infarcts to become invisible.A canine model with pathology as the reference standard was used for validation (n = 22). Patients with MI and normal controls were studied to ascertain clinical performance (n = 31).In canines, the flow-independent dark-blood delayed enhancement (FIDDLE) technique was superior to conventional DE-CMR for the detection of MI, with higher sensitivity (96% vs. 85%, respectively; p = 0.002) and accuracy (95% vs. 87%, respectively; p = 0.01) and with similar specificity (92% vs, 92%, respectively; p = 1.0). In infarcts that were identified by both techniques, the entire length of the endocardial border between infarcted myocardium and adjacent blood-pool was visualized in 33% for DE-CMR compared with 100% for FIDDLE. There was better agreement for FIDDLE-measured infarct size than for DE-CMR infarct size (95% limits-of-agreement, 2.1% vs. 5.5%, respectively; p 0.0001). In patients, findings were similar. FIDDLE demonstrated higher accuracy for diagnosis of MI than DE-CMR (100% [95% confidence interval [CI]: 89% to 100%] vs. 84% [95% CI: 66% to 95%], respectively; p = 0.03).The study introduced and validated a novel CMR technique that improves the discrimination of the border between infarcted myocardium and adjacent blood-pool. This dark-blood technique provides diagnostic performance that is superior to that of the current in vivo reference standard for the imaging diagnosis of MI.

We thank Dr Di Marco et al1 for their letter. We agree that contrast-enhanced multidetector computed tomography is excellent for noninvasively defining myocardial structure for electroanatomical map integration to determine, for example, the impact of epicardial fat.2 Myocardial tissue characterization by imaging, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), provides insights into underlying activated disease pathways for focal fat and focal fibrosis in arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC). How do they compare and how can they synergize? Contraindications to MRI include presence of implanted devices and it has lower resolution than CT, but new approaches are emerging. Third-generation late gadolinium enhancement techniques with motion correction are superior while dark blood techniques3 visualize …

Background: This study evaluates a novel dark-blood late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) method, without using additional magnetization preparation, and compares it to conventional bright-blood LGE, for the detection of ischaemic myocardial scar. LGE is able to clearly depict myocardial infarction and macroscopic scarring from viable myocardium. However, due to the bright signal of adjacent left ventricular blood, the apparent volume of scar tissue can be significantly reduced, or even completely obscured. In addition, blood pool signal can mimic scar tissue and lead to false positive observations. Simply nulling the blood magnetization by choosing shorter inversion times, leads to a negative viable myocardium signal that appears equally as bright as scar due to the magnitude image reconstruction. However, by combining blood magnetization nulling with the extended grayscale range of phase-sensitive inversion-recovery (PSIR), a darker blood signal can be achieved whilst a dark myocardium and bright scar signal is preserved.Methods: LGE was performed in nine male patients (63 +/- 11y) using a PSIR pulse sequence, with both conventional viable myocardium nulling and left ventricular blood nulling, in a randomized order. Regions of interest were drawn in the left ventricular blood, viable myocardium, and scar tissue, to assess contrast-to-noise ratios. Maximum scar transmurality, scar size, circumferential scar angle, and a confidence score for scar detection and maximum transmurality were also assessed. Bloch simulations were performed to simulate the magnetization levels of the left ventricular blood, viable myocardium, and scar tissue.Results: Average scar-to-blood contrast was significantly (p Conclusions: Nulling left ventricular blood magnetization for PSIR LGE leads to improved scar-to-blood contrast and increased expert confidence in scar detection and scar transmurality. As no additional magnetization preparation is used, clinical application on current MR systems is readily available without the need for extensive optimizations, software modifications, and/or additional training.

Purpose In multiple sclerosis (MS) the sensitivity for detection of contrast enhancing lesions (CEL) in T1-weighted scans is essential for diagnostics and therapy decisions. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the sensitivity of T1w MPRAGE scans in comparison to T1w dark blood technique (T1-DB) for CEL in MS. Materials and methods 3T MR imaging was performed in 37 MS patients, including T2-weighted imaging, T1w MPRAGE before and after gadolinium injection (unenhanced-T1 and T1-CE) and T1-DB imaging. After gadolinium application, the T1-DB scan was performed prior to T1-CE. From unenhanced-T1 and T1-CE scans, subtraction images (T1-SUB) were calculated. The number of CEL was determined separately on T1-CE and T1-DB by two raters independently. Lesions only detected on T1-DB scans then were verified on T1-SUB. Only lesions detected by both raters were included in further analysis. Results In 16 patients, at least one CEL was detected by both rater, either on T1-CE or T1-DB. All lesions that were detected on T1-CE were also detected on T1-DB images. The total number of contrast enhancing lesions detected on T1-DB images (n = 54) by both raters was significantly higher than the corresponding number of lesions identified on T1-CE (n = 27) (p = 0.01); all of these lesions could be verified on SUB images. In 21 patients, no CEL was detected in any of the sequences. Conclusions The application of T1-DB technique increases the sensitivity for CEL in MS, especially for those lesions that show only subtle increase in intensity after Gadolinium application but remain hypo- or iso-intense to surrounding tissue.

Rationale and Objectives To assess the validity and reliability of measuring mean aortic wall thickness (MAWT) of the ascending and descending aorta using cine steady-state free precession (SSFP) imaging compared to dark blood (DB) imaging. Materials and Methods DB and SSFP images of the thoracic aorta acquired at 1.5 T in 50 volunteers (26 women, 24 men; mean age: 50.2 ± 13.1 years) were used. MAWT was calculated on DB and SSFP images for the ascending and descending aorta at the level of the right pulmonary artery by two independent observers. Validity was assessed using Bland-Altman analysis, Passing-Bablok regression, and Spearman correlation. Reliability was assessed using Bland-Altman analysis and intraclass coefficients (ICCs). Results The mean MAWT of the ascending aorta on DB and SSFP images was 1.89 ± 0.21 mm and 1.87 ± 0.20 mm. The measurements for the descending aorta were 1.60 ± 0.22 and 1.63 ± 0.20 mm, respectively. Comparison of DB and SSFP measurements revealed a mean bias of 1.3% (95% limits of agreement (LOA): −7.9, 10.5%) for the ascending and of −2.1% (LOA: −10.5, 6.3%) for the descending aorta. The corresponding regression equation was y = 0.042 + 0.960 × ( r = 0.91; P r = 0.95; P Conclusions MAWT determination in the ascending and descending aorta using cine SSFP sequences is highly valid and reliable compared to DB imaging.

Purpose To achieve simultaneous high-resolution magnetic resonance angiography and venography (MRAV) imaging in terms of enhanced time-of-flight (TOF) angiography and susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI), with a clear separation of arteries and veins. Materials and Methods A new flow rephase/dephase interleaved double-echo sequence was introduced that facilitates multiple types of imaging contrast, i.e., TOF, SWI, and dark blood, in a single acquisition. A nonlinear subtraction (NLS) method is proposed and assessed to maximally enhance angiography contrast with minimum venous contamination. Results Fully flow rephased TOF MRA and SWI MRV data were acquired simultaneously, along with an extra flow dephased dark blood image for angiography enhancement calculation. Compared to linear subtraction methods, the proposed NLS method was able to enhance angiography contrast while effectively eliminating vein-tissue contrast. The NLS method even outperformed low-dose contrast-enhanced MRA for a clean, enhanced angiography map. Conclusion Using the proposed interleaved double-echo sequence along with the NLS postprocessing method, one can simultaneously obtain both high-quality SWI and significantly enhanced TOF MRA with clear separation of arterial and venous maps. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2013;38:1539–1548. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Purpose To propose and test a four-dimensional (4D) dark-blood magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method based on a radial sampling trajectory capable of displaying the human arterial wall and its motion in three spatial dimensions over the cardiac cycle. Methods The carotid arteries of volunteer and patient subjects were imaged with the proposed 4D dark-blood MRI sequence on a 3T scanner. Validation of arterial lumen and arterial wall areas obtained with the proposed 4D dark-blood technique was made with respect to established two-dimensional bright-blood cine and high spatial resolution three-dimensional dark-blood MRI protocols, respectively. Results The proposed 4D MRI method provided for dark-blood display of the carotid arterial wall and demonstrated its movement and distension over the cardiac cycle. Quantitative measurements of arterial lumen and wall areas were in statistical agreement with established MRI techniques. Conclusion 4D blood suppressed MRI of the human vascular system with submillimeter isotropic spatial resolution is feasible in a clinically reasonable scan time, and data obtained in the carotid arteries show good agreement with established MRI techniques. Future efforts will examine the constellation of data provided by the method and investigate its utility for assessing cardiovascular risk. Magn Reson Med 69:956–965, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Background Bright blood late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging typically achieves excellent contrast between infarcted and normal myocardium. However, the contrast between the myocardial infarction (MI) and the blood pool is frequently suboptimal. A large fraction of infarctions caused by coronary artery disease are sub-endocardial and thus adjacent to the blood pool. It is not infrequent that sub-endocardial MIs are difficult to detect or clearly delineate. Methods In this present work, an inversion recovery (IR) T2 preparation was combined with single shot steady state free precession imaging and respiratory motion corrected averaging to achieve dark blood LGE images with good signal to noise ratio while maintaining the desired spatial and temporal resolution. In this manner, imaging was conducted free-breathing, which has benefits for image quality, patient comfort, and clinical workflow in both adults and children. Furthermore, by using a phase sensitive inversion recovery reconstruction the blood signal may be made darker than the myocardium (i.e., negative signal values) thereby providing contrast between the blood and both the MI and remote myocardium. In the proposed approach, a single T1-map scout was used to measure the myocardial and blood T1 using a MOdified Look-Locker Inversion recovery (MOLLI) protocol and all protocol parameters were automatically calculated from these values within the sequence thereby simplifying the user interface. Results The contrast to noise ratio (CNR) between MI and remote myocardium was measured in n = 30 subjects with subendocardial MI using both bright blood and dark blood protocols. The CNR for the dark blood protocol had a 13 % loss compared to the bright blood protocol. The CNR between the MI and blood pool was positive for all dark blood cases, and was negative in 63 % of the bright blood cases. The conspicuity of subendocardial fibrosis and MI was greatly improved by dark blood (DB) PSIR as well as the delineation of the subendocardial border. Conclusions Free-breathing, dark blood PSIR LGE imaging was demonstrated to improve the visualization of subendocardial MI and fibrosis in cases with low contrast with adjacent blood pool. The proposed method also improves visualization of thin walled fibrous structures such as atrial walls and valves, as well as papillary muscles.

Background— T2-Weighted MRI reveals myocardial edema and enables estimation of the ischemic area at risk and myocardial salvage in patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI). We compared the diagnostic accuracy of a new bright-blood T2-weighted with a standard black blood T2-weighted MRI in patients with acute MI. Methods and Results— A breath-hold, bright-blood T2-weighted, Acquisition for Cardiac Unified T2 Edema pulse sequence with normalization for coil sensitivity and a breath-hold T2 dark-blood short tau inversion recovery sequence were used to depict the area at risk in 54 consecutive acute MI patients. Infarct size was measured on gadolinium late contrast enhancement images. Compared with dark-blood T2-weighted MRI, consensus agreements between independent observers for identification of myocardial edema were higher with bright-blood T2-weighted MRI when evaluated per patient ( P P P P Conclusions— Bright-blood T2-weighted MRI has higher diagnostic accuracy than dark-blood T2-weighted MRI. Additionally, dark-blood T2-weighted MRI may underestimate area at risk and myocardial salvage.

Delayed enhancement MRI using fast segmented k-space inversion recovery (IR) gradient-echo imaging is a well established "bright-blood" technique for identifying myocardial infarction and is used as the reference standard sequence in this study. The purpose of this study was to validate a recently developed dark blood-pool delayed enhancement technique in a porcine animal model, evaluate its performance in human patients, and quantify its performance compared with the reference standard in both.In an animal study, the reference standard and dark blood-pool delayed enhancement were assessed in three pigs with induced myocardial infarction. In a human study, 26 patients, 31-81 years old (19 men and seven women), with a known history of myocardial infarction were imaged using the reference standard and dark blood-pool delayed enhancement. Contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), signal intensity ratio, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and qualitative scores of hyperenhancement were recorded. Measurements were compared using paired samples t test and Wilcoxon's signed rank test.In the animal study, the mean CNR of infarct to blood pool was 11 times higher for dark blood-pool delayed enhancement than for the reference standard. The mean SNR was 4.4 times higher for the reference standard. In the human study, the mean CNR and signal intensity ratio of hyperenhancing myocardium to the blood pool were 1.9 (p = 0.04) and 5.5 (p0.01) times higher, respectively, for dark blood-pool delayed enhancement compared with reference standard. The mean CNR and signal intensity ratio of hyperenhancing myocardium to normal myocardium and SNR were 2.8 (p0.01), 1.3 (p = 0.07), and 2.8 (p0.01) higher, respectively, for the reference standard. Qualitative analysis identified seven extra segments with grade 1 scars using dark blood-pool delayed enhancement (p0.01).Dark blood-pool delayed enhancement is complementary to the reference standard. It can detect more subendocardial foci of hyperenhancement, thus potentially identifying more infarcts and changing patient management.

Chronic constrictive pericarditis: MR imaging features Chronic constrictive pericarditis is defined by an increase in the rigidity of the pericardium resulting in impairment of the ventricular filling conditions. Cardiac MR is both a morphological and functional study always complemented by multi-detector CT. Morphological analysis is based on axial, longitudinal long axis and short axis views on Turbo (fast) SE Dark Blood and CINE sequences. Functional analysis is based on real-time acquisitions in the short axis at the base of the ventricles by comparing spontaneous breathing and deep breathing. The excursion of the interventricular septum is a reliable sign of constriction. The study is supplemented by phase contrast acquisitions. In the setting of persistent inflammation or free pericardial fluid, delayed enhancement 3D and 2D sequences including Phase Sensitive Inversion Recovery (PSIR ® ) are useful.

PURPOSE To describe a new method for performing dark blood (DB) magnetization preparation in TrueFISP (bSSFP) and apply the technique to high-resolution carotid artery imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS The developed method (HEFEWEIZEN) provides directional flow suppression, while preserving bSSFP contrast, by periodically applying spatial saturation in short repetition time (TR) TrueFISP. Steady-state free precession (SSFP) conditions are maintained throughout the acquisition for the imaging slice magnetization. HEFEWEIZEN was implemented on a 1.5 T scanner with standard receiver coils. Studies were performed in phantoms, eight asymptomatic volunteers, and two patients with low- and high-grade carotid artery stenosis. RESULTS Average flow suppression was 88% +/- 4% (arterial) and 85% +/- 3% (venous) in a multislice study. Stationary signal, contrast, and fine details were maintained with only slight signal suppression (11% +/- 11%). Comparison to diffusion-prepared SSFP in the common carotid artery demonstrated significant improvement in wall-lumen contrast-to-noise ratio efficiency (P = 0.024). DB contrast was achieved with only 13% increased acquisition time (14.3 sec). Further acceleration was possible by confining the DB preparation to the central 60% of k-space. CONCLUSION A fast, short TR, DB TrueFISP pulse sequence was developed and tested in the carotid arteries of asymptomatic volunteers and patients.

The purpose of this article is to review the MR principles of blood signal and normal flow-related phenomena seen in the aorta and inferior vena cava (IVC) on T2-weighted images of the abdomen and to discuss the physiologic and physical basis of signal alterations with breath-hold imaging. We define time-of-flight (TOF) loss and list the factors that affect it; explain the physiologic effects of breath-hold imaging on both aortic and IVC waveforms and velocity; state which abdominal T2 imaging techniques are most susceptible to variable TOF effects and explain why based on physiologic effects and MR principles; and describe three trouble-shooting techniques to confirm that unexpected signal does not reflect pathology.T2 images customarily result in TOF loss and dark blood signal. Abdominal MRI relies extensively on breath-hold imaging techniques that may alter markedly the flow velocity in normal vessels. This marked flow change results in signal heterogeneity and variable TOF loss especially with faster sequences filling k-space in shorter time frames. Breath-hold imaging decreases k-space fill time, and of the breath-hold T2 techniques, single-shot fast spin-echo decreases k-space fill time the most. Atypical blood signal during breath-hold imaging may mimic pathology, but abnormal findings can be verified by review of other sequences and planes of imaging.

Background A fundamental component of the CMR exam is contrast enhanced imaging, which is crucial for delineating diseased from normal tissue. Unfortunately, diseased tissue adjacent to vasculature often remains hidden since there is poor contrast between hyperenhanced tissue and bright blood-pool. Conventional black-blood double-IR methods are not a solution; these were not designed to function after contrast administration since they rely on the long native T1 of blood (~2s at 3T) and adequate blood flow within this time period. We introduce a novel Flow-Independent Dark-blood DeLayed Enhancement technique (FIDDLE) that allows visualization of tissue contrast-enhancement while suppressing blood-pool signal. We validate FIDDLE in an animal model of myocardial infarction (MI) and demonstrate feasibility in patients.

In this chapter, we describe in detail our clinical CMR protocol for patients with known or suspected ARVC/D and compare it to the CMR protocols utilized by other ARVC/D centers. Our predominant sequence on 1.5-T magnet for assessment of the global and regional RV and LV function is a balanced-state-free precession sequence, or bSSFP. Rarely, we may need to utilize the gradient echo (GRE)–based cine images, when significant valvular regurgitation is suggested or when the patient has a pacemaker/ICD. SSFP images are the basis for RV functional and structural assessment. Use of the dark blood T1-weighted sequences and delayed gadolinium enhancement assist in evaluation of the structural RV and LV abnormalities, such as fibrofatty infiltration and inflammation. Our ARVC/D protocol is fairly standardized and provides structural and functional data for both ventricles since LV involvement is an important clinical and prognostic factor in this disorder. Finally, we discuss some methodological aspects of RV volumetric measurements and provide recommendations for repeatable quantitation of RV volume.

The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of 3D diffusion-prepared balanced steady-state free precession (SSFP) imaging with that of 3D contrast-enhanced MR angiography in evaluation of the thoracic aorta.Twenty-one patients with indications for contrast-enhanced MR angiography and diffusion-prepared SSFP of the thoracic aorta were involved in this retrospective chart review study conducted with 1.5-T MRI. Two observers scored the quality of the contrast-enhanced MR angiographic and diffusion-prepared SSFP images on the basis of depicting the thoracic aorta. Image quality scores and diametric measurements of the aorta from both image sets were compared.Diametric measurements of the thoracic aorta showed a strong linear association (r = 0.971, p0.0001; regression line indifferent from line of equality, p0.05). The aortic root was better visualized with contrast-enhanced MR angiography (image quality score, 3.6 +/- 0.9 vs 3.0 +/- 0.8 of 5; p0.05); however, the aortic wall was better visualized with diffusion-prepared SSFP (image quality score, 4.4 +/- 0.6 vs 1.9 +/- 0.3 of 5; p0.0001).Three-dimensional diffusion-prepared SSFP yields better image quality than 3D contrast-enhanced MR angiography in evaluation of the thoracic aortic wall and appears to be a useful adjunct to 3D contrast-enhanced MR angiography for assessing aortic abnormalities before administration of a contrast agent.

The objective of this study was to develop and demonstrate a technique to eliminate venous enhancement in contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance lymphangiography through shortening T2 ⁎ in the blood pool, thus allowing for a lymphatic-only map. Administration of the blood-pool iron agent ferumoxtyol in addition to intracutaneous gadolinium during contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance lymphangiography allows for suppression of vascular structures to achieve venous-free lymphatic mapping.

The goal of this study was to evaluate the use of super paramagnetic particles of iron oxide (SPIO) as a dark blood contrast agent, in combination with a bright blood steady-state free precession sequence for magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), in an animal model. The original concentration of the SPIO of 500 mmol Fe/l and dilutions to 250, 125, 60, 30, 10 and 5 mmol Fe/l were intra-arterially injected into the aorta of a pig. Then the dilution of 10 mmol Fe/l was chosen for repeated intra-arterial injections into two pigs. During these intra-arterial SPIO injections MR images were acquired with a 1.5 T scanner. Signal intensity measurements were performed in the aorta. The signal-to-noise ratio during SPIO bolus passage was significantly less than during baseline conditions (Fisher's F-ratio 159.8, p

This study demonstrates, in patients with 22q11.2 deletion, the wide variety of complex aortic arch anomalies that can be accurately defined by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compared with echocardiography. From May 1999 to August 2003, 17 of 68 patients (25%) with 22q11.2 deletion referred for cardiac evaluation required cardiac MRI, after echocardiography, to clarify aortic arch anatomy. Images of cardiac anatomy were obtained using steady-state free precession, half-Fourier acquired single turbo spin-echo dark blood sequences and gadolinium for 3-dimensional reconstruction. All MRI findings were abnormal, and in 16 of 17 cases, echocardiography was unable to define aortic arch anomalies correctly compared with MRI.

Purpose To report initial experience with TE-averaged susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) in normal subjects and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) patients for the detection of intramyocardial hemorrhage (IMH). Materials and Methods 15 healthy control and 11 AMI subjects were studied at 1.5T before contrast agent administration with a dark blood double inversion recovery multiple spoiled gradient-echo sequence. Magnitude, susceptibility weighted and TE-averaged images were reconstructed from raw data. Contrast and signal-difference-to-noise were measured and compared between methods for IMH detection. Results There were six patients with microvascular obstruction (MVO) and four patients with IMH detected by TE-averaged SWI imaging. All patients with IMH on SWI scans had MVO on late gadolinium-enhanced (LGE) imaging. There was a three-fold increase in IMH contrast with SWI compared to magnitude images. IMH contrast decreased and signal-to-noise increased with increased TE averages. Conclusions TE-averaged SWI imaging is a promising method for myocardial tissue characterization in the setting of AMI for the detection of IMH. Along with gray-scale colormap inversion, it combines not only magnitude and phase information, but also images across TEs to provide a single image sensitive to IMH with characteristics similar to LGE imaging.

Purpose Three-dimensional (3D) dark-blood MRI has shown great potential in coronary artery plaque evaluation. However, substantial variability in quantification could result from superficial calcification because of its low signal. To address this issue, a 3D coronary dark-blood interleaved with gray-blood (cDIG) technique was developed. Methods cDIG is based on a balanced steady-state free precession readout combined with a local re-inversion-based double-inversion-recovery (LocReInv-DIR) preparation. The LocReInv-DIR is applied every two RR intervals. Dark-blood and gray-blood contrasts are collected in the first and second RR interval, respectively. To improve the respiratory gating efficiency, two independent navigators were developed to separately gate the respiratory motion for the two interleaved acquisitions. In vivo experiments in eight healthy subjects and one patient were conducted to validate the technique. Results cDIG provided dual-contrasts without compromise in scan time. The dark-blood images with cDIG demonstrated excellent wall and lumen signal performances and morphological measurements. Advantageously, cDIG yielded a second contrast that was shown to help identify the superficial calcification in the coronary plaque of a patient. Conclusion A novel technique was developed for obtaining 3D coronary vessel wall and gray lumen images. The additional contrast may aid in identifying calcified nodules and thus potentially improve the evaluation of coronary plaque burden. Magn Reson Med, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.