Interleaved T2 preparation for simultaneous coronary artery and pulmonary artery and vein visualization

Background Evaluation of a dynamic T2-preparation (dynT2prep) sequence, whereby the first dynamic is acquired with and the second without T2 preparation. T2 preparation allows suppression of tissues with short T2 relaxation times, e.g. deoxygenated blood. Tissues with long T2 relaxation times, e.g. oxygenated arterial blood, are minimally influenced. Thus both blood of the pulmonary veins and left ventricle should appear signal suppressed on subtracted dynT2prep images (T2prep OFF T2prep ON). Subtraction of both dynamics, however, always resulted in black blood images of the great cardiac chambers and coronary arteries while the pulmonary circulation appeared bright due to a frequency offset in the lungs (Figure 1). This method was then tested in children with congenital heart disease (CHD) and healthy adult volunteers for selective pulmonary circulation visualization.