Comparison of arterial input function measured from dual-bolus and dual-sequence dynamic contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance imaging

Methods Both the dual-sequence CMR perfusion technique [1] and the dual-bolus protocol [2] were performed in five canines and 35 clinical subjects using a 1.5 Tesla scanner. Gd-DTPA at 0.005 mmol/kg and 0.05 mmol/kg were administered during separate breath holds. Typical imaging parameters: 1 RR, 90° saturation pulse, 50°read out angle, saturation recovery 90 ms, TR 2.4 ms, TE 1.2 ms, matrix size 128x80. A low TE, low resolution FLASH image (TE 0.6 ms, matrix size 64x48) was acquired during each RR interval. AIF measured from the low-dose high-resolution (i.e. dual-bolus) image series and highdose low-resolution (i.e. dual-sequence) image series were compared. Reference MBF measurements were obtained from the canine experiments with intracoronary adenosine infusion and microspheres injection. CMR derived MBF estimates were calculated separately using both AIF by a model-constrained deconvolution. Clinical CMR perfusion studies (35 rest and 35 stress) were also analyzed to compare the AIF from both techniques.