High resolution myocardial first-pass perfusion imaging with extended anatomic coverage.

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Medical Physics

Background:

• High-resolution myocardial perfusion imaging is crucial for diagnosing cardiac conditions.
• Simultaneous multislice (SMS) excitation enables extended anatomic coverage in cardiac MRI.
• Advanced reconstruction techniques are needed to balance resolution, coverage, and image quality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To compare Parallel Imaging (PI) and Compressed Sensing (CS) frameworks for SMS-based myocardial perfusion imaging.
• To evaluate their performance in high-resolution, contrast-enhanced first-pass imaging.
• To assess reconstruction accuracy and identify potential errors.

Main Methods:

• Simultaneous multislice imaging with MS-CAIPIRINHA was employed for extended coverage.
• Equidistant or random undersampling schemes were used with PI and CS reconstruction.
• Simulations and in vivo measurements were conducted to compare reconstruction accuracy using comprehensive quality metrics.

Main Results:

• Both PI and CS frameworks achieved good reconstruction accuracy for myocardial perfusion imaging.
• PI showed low to moderate noise enhancement.
• CS exhibited systematic errors and introduced spatiotemporal blurring.

Conclusions:

• Both PI and CS enable high-resolution (2.0 × 2.0 mm²) perfusion measurements across six slices per heartbeat.
• Parallel Imaging is considered superior for clinical applications due to its lack of systematic deviations.
• PI offers a more robust and reliable approach for myocardial perfusion assessment.