Myocardial tissue tracking with two-dimensional cine displacement-encoded MR imaging: development and initial...

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering
• Medical Physics

Background:

• Quantitative myocardial motion tracking is crucial for diagnosing cardiac conditions.
• Conventional methods like MR tagging have limitations in spatial and temporal resolution.
• Developing advanced imaging techniques is essential for improved cardiac assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a novel 2D cine DisplacemenT ENcoding with Stimulated Echoes (DENSE) magnetic resonance (MR) pulse sequence.
• To enable quantitative myocardial motion tracking with high accuracy and resolution.
• To assess the performance of the DENSE sequence against conventional MR tagging.

Main Methods:

• A breath-hold 2D cine DENSE MR pulse sequence was implemented.
• Complementary spatial modulation of magnetization was used for artifact suppression.
• Echo-planar imaging facilitated rapid data acquisition.
• Comparison with conventional MR imaging myocardial tagging in healthy volunteers.

Main Results:

• The DENSE sequence achieved spatial resolution of 2.7 x 2.7 mm and temporal resolution of 60 msec.
• Artifacts were suppressed to 10% or less of image energy using complementary spatial modulation.
• Circumferential strain (E(cc)) measured by DENSE correlated strongly with conventional tagging (R = 0.87).

Conclusions:

• The developed 2D cine DENSE MR sequence is effective for quantitative myocardial motion and strain analysis.
• This technique offers a reliable alternative to conventional MR tagging for cardiac motion assessment.
• The DENSE sequence provides high-resolution, artifact-minimized imaging of cardiac dynamics.