Repeatability of Open-MOLLI: An open-source inversion recovery myocardial T1 mapping sequence for fast prototyping

To develop an open-source prototype of myocardial T1 mapping (Open-MOLLI) to improve accessibility to cardiac T1 mapping and evaluate its repeatability. With Open-MOLLI, we aim to enable faster implementation and testing of sequence modifications and to facilitate inter-scanner and cross-vendor reproducibility studies.

Open-MOLLI is an inversion-recovery sequence using a balanced SSFP (bSSFP) readout, with inversion and triggering schemes based on the 5(3)3 MOLLI sequence, developed in Pulseq. Open-MOLLI and MOLLI sequences were acquired in the ISMRM/NIST phantom and 21 healthy volunteers. In 18 of those subjects, Open-MOLLI and MOLLI were repeated in the same session (test-retest).

Phantom T1 values were comparable between methods, specifically for the vial with reference T1 value most similar to healthy myocardium T1 (T1^vial3 = 1027 ms): T1^MOLLI = 1011 ± 24 ms versus T1^Open-MOLLI = 1009 ± 20 ms. In vivo T1 estimates were similar between Open-MOLLI and MOLLI (T1^MOLLI = 1004 ± 33 ms vs. T1^Open-MOLLI = 998 ± 52 ms), with a mean difference of -17 ms (p = 0.20), despite noisier Open-MOLLI weighted images and maps. Repeatability measures were slightly higher for Open-MOLLI (RC^MOLLI = 3.0% vs. RC^Open-MOLLI = 4.4%).

The open-source sequence Open-MOLLI can be used for T1 mapping in vivo with similar mean T1 values to the MOLLI method. Open-MOLLI increases the accessibility to cardiac T1 mapping, providing also a base sequence to which further improvements can easily be added and tested.