Systolic 3D first-pass myocardial perfusion MRI

Introduction: First-pass myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) is now an established tool for the assessment of ischemic heart disease, and the most widely used protocols involve 2D multi-slice acquisition. Three-dimensional (3D) MPI is potentially advantageous due to its contiguous spatial coverage and high SNR [1], and has been recently shown to be more accurate than 2D multi-slice techniques in sizing defects [2]. Typically, 3D data acquisition is temporally positioned at the center of diastole when the heart is the most stationary. End-systole is the second longest quiescent cardiac phase, and may be advantageous, due to its reduced sensitivity to R-R variability and arrhythmia [3,4]. Also, low in-plane spatial resolution may be well-tolerated in systolic images due to thicker myocardium. The main goal of this study was to investigate the feasibility of systolic 3D MPI and compare image quality and time intensity curves with diastolic 3D MPI. We performed this comparison in healthy volunteers.