Cardiovascular 4D velocity mapping accelerated with k-t BLAST at 3.0 Tesla: 8-channel vs. 32-channel coil arrays

Background 4D phase contrast CMR can be used to visualise and quantify cardiovascular flow and has become more widely available. However, the scan times tend to be long. Acceleration techniques such as SENSE can be useful. k-t BLAST is a recent method employed to reduce scan times even further. However, these newer acceleration techniques may potentially degrade image quality; this could be overcome by using a higher number of multicoil arrays. 4D k-t BLAST velocity mapping has not been extensively used (or validated) for cardiovascular applications. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of 4D flow-sensitive CMR in the thoracic aorta with 8and 32-channel coil arrays using k-t BLAST, compared to SENSE acceleration.