Free breathing cardiac real-time cine MR without ECG triggering

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Medical Technology

Background:

• Increasing demand for Left Ventricular (LV) functional MRI necessitates faster and more patient-friendly imaging techniques.
• Current standard ECG-triggered breath-hold cine MRI can be time-consuming and challenging for certain patient groups.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility and reproducibility of real-time (RT) non-ECG triggered cine MRI for LV functional assessment.
• To compare the examination time and diagnostic accuracy of RT cine MRI against standard ECG-triggered breath-hold cine MRI.

Main Methods:

• RT and standard ECG-triggered breath-hold cine MRI were performed in 9 volunteers and 21 patients.
• Data acquisition time was compared between the two methods.
• Bland-Altman analysis and variability studies (interstudy, intraobserver) were conducted to assess reproducibility and agreement.

Main Results:

• RT cine MRI reduced data acquisition time by more than a factor of ten compared to standard cine MRI.
• RT produced comparable results to standard cine MRI, with minor overestimation of LV mass.
• Low interstudy and intraobserver variability were observed for RT cine MRI.

Conclusions:

• Free-breathing, real-time (RT) cine MRI is a reliable and suitable tool for clinical routine cardiac imaging.
• RT cine MRI offers significant time savings and may be particularly beneficial for patients unable to perform breath-holds or with arrhythmias.