Correction for non-uniform k-space data weighting effects in first-pass cardiac perfusion imaging with TurboFLASH readout

Background To obtain first-pass cardiac perfusion images, a saturation-recovery (SR) preparation can be used with TurboFLASH readout. However, non-uniform k-space weighting during the SR recovery may lead to distortion of the image point spread function; this may lead to systematic overestimation or underestimation of the imagederived arterial input function (AIF) and myocardium signals, with resulting bias in the perfusion calculations. In this work, we used numerical simulations to correct for non-uniform k-space data weighting effects on the AIF and myocardial wall signals.