Comparative Performance Analysis of an Open Source Motion-Compensated Cardiac Diffusion Sequence Across Different MRI...

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular MRI
• Diffusion Tensor Imaging

Background:

• Cardiac diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) enables detailed myocardial tissue characterization.
• Standardized, open-source frameworks are needed to facilitate widespread adoption and comparison.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate an open-source cardiac DTI sequence framework.
• To assess performance variations across different Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) hardware.

Main Methods:

• Compiled and applied three motion-compensated DTI sequences using the Pulseq framework on multiple MRI systems.
• Acquired cardiac short-axis images from five volunteers.
• Performed Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) analysis.

Main Results:

• The Pulseq framework successfully generated cardiac DTI data suitable for analysis.
• Significant performance differences were observed between MRI systems, with up to 80% higher SNR on systems with stronger gradients.
• Intra-system variations also occurred, with SNR differences up to 42% for the same sequence on different scanners.

Conclusions:

• The open-source Pulseq framework provides a viable starting point for cardiac DTI.
• MRI hardware significantly influences cardiac DTI performance, necessitating further investigation into hardware-specific optimization.