Diffusion tensor MRI of the human heart In Vivo with a navigator based free breathing approach

Summary The purpose of this work was to implement prospective navigators to allow free breathing in vivo DTI of the heart to be performed and, thereby, allow the technique to be broadly applied in patients with cardiovascular disease. Background Diffusion tensor MRI (DTI) provides a non-invasive approach for the depiction of the myocardial fibre architecture [1-5]. In vivo DTI remains extremely challenging due to the need for motion correction. Several techniques have been used to compensate for respiratory motion: multiple breath-holds (>36 per patient), synchronised breathing and retrospective navigators based on image cross-correlation [2-5]. The purpose of this work was to implement prospective navigators to allow free breathing in vivo DTI of the heart to be performed and, thereby, allow the technique to be broadly applied in patients with cardiovascular disease.