A Siemens Single-Shot T1 Mapping Sequence as an Alternative to MOLLI

Area of Science:

• Cardiovascular Imaging
• Medical Physics
• Quantitative MRI

Background:

• Native T1 mapping is crucial for myocardial tissue characterization in cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR).
• Existing techniques like Modified Look-Locker Inversion Recovery (MOLLI) are often proprietary and inaccessible.
• There is a need for accessible and quantitative T1 mapping methods, particularly in resource-constrained environments.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate an accessible Single-Shot T1 mapping technique.
• To evaluate its performance as a practical alternative to MOLLI.
• To assess agreement and diagnostic performance against a reference standard (CVI⁴²).

Main Methods:

• A retrospective study involving 40 subjects (25 healthy, 15 cardiac pathology) using 3T CMR.
• Acquisition of native T1 values via a modified Single-Shot inversion recovery scheme (3(3)3(3)5).
• Quantitative analysis using custom MATLAB post-processing compared with CVI⁴² reference measurements; Bland-Altman analysis for agreement.

Main Results:

• Pathological subjects showed significantly higher native T1 values (1566 ± 65 ms) than controls (1079 ± 80 ms).
• The Single-Shot method demonstrated strong agreement with the reference standard (mean difference 5.7 ms, no significant bias).
• Reduced inter-subject variability was observed with the Single-Shot approach compared to CVI⁴².

Conclusions:

• The developed Single-Shot T1 mapping technique is a reliable, reproducible, and accessible alternative to MOLLI.
• It offers comparable accuracy and improved numerical stability for myocardial tissue characterization.
• This method can enhance access to advanced CMR techniques, especially in low-resource settings.