"Two-For-One": 4D Cardiac and Pulmonary MR Imaging From a Single Acquisition Using bSTAR

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Pulmonary Imaging

Background:

• Simultaneous assessment of cardiac and lung function is clinically important.
• Existing imaging techniques may require separate scans for heart and lungs.
• ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03331380.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a single 4D (3D+time) imaging technique for simultaneous heart and lung visualization.
• To utilize a volumetric radial free-breathing bSSFP dual echo acquisition (bSTAR) with inline reconstruction.
• To assess the feasibility of this technique at 0.55 T and 1.5 T.

Main Methods:

• 10 healthy volunteers and 12 patients underwent imaging at 0.55 T using the bSTAR sequence.
• Cardiac images were used for left-ventricular volumetry, compared against 2D cine images.
• Two expert readers assessed the image quality of both cardiac and pulmonary bSTAR images.

Main Results:

• Inline reconstruction of cardiac and pulmonary images was achieved in under 19 and 9 minutes, respectively.
• Ejection Fraction measurements from bSTAR showed no significant difference compared to 2D cine images (mean bias -0.39%).
• Expert readers rated whole heart bSTAR images as fair-to-good (3.47 ± 0.58) and whole lung bSTAR images as good (3.94 ± 0.85).

Conclusions:

• The bSTAR technique enables simultaneous 4D imaging of the heart and lungs in a single scan.
• Parallel image reconstructions facilitate efficient evaluation of cardio-pulmonary morphology and function.
• This method holds promise for improving the assessment of cardio-pulmonary interplay.