Improvement of hyperemic myocardial oxygen extraction fraction estimation by a diffusion-prepared sequence

Myocardial oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) during hyperemia can be estimated using a double-inversion-recovery-prepared T(2)-weighted black-blood sequence. Severe irregular electrocardiogram (ECG) triggering due to elevated heart rate and/or arrhythmias may render it difficult to adequately suppress the flowing left ventricle blood signal and thus potentially cause errors in the estimates of myocardial OEF. Thus, the goal of this study was to evaluate another black-blood technique, a diffusion-weighted-prepared turbo spin echo sequence for its ability to determine regional myocardial OEF during hyperemia. Control dogs and dogs with acute coronary artery stenosis were imaged with both the double-inversion-recovery- and diffusion-weighted-prepared turbo spin echo sequences at rest and during either dipyridamole or dobutamine hyperemia. Validation of MRI OEF estimates was performed using blood sampling from the artery and coronary sinus in control dogs. The two methods showed comparable correlations with blood sampling results (R(2) = 0.9). Similar OEF estimations for all dogs were observed, except for the group of dogs with severe coronary stenosis during dobutamine stress. In these dogs, the diffusion-weighted method provided more physiologically reasonable OEF (hyperemic OEF = 0.75 +/- 0.08 versus resting OEF of 0.6) than the double-inversion-recovery method (hyperemic OEF = 0.56 +/- 0.10). Diffusion-weighted preparation may be a valuable alternative for more accurate oxygenation measurements during irregular ECG-triggering.