Department of Medicine, Cardiovascular Division, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA.
Magn Reson Med. 2010 Feb;63(2):530-6. doi: 10.1002/mrm.22252.
We propose a non-contrast-enhanced, three-dimensional, free-breathing, electrocardiogram-gated, gradient recalled echo sequence with a slab-selective inversion for pulmonary vein (PV) MRI. A sagittal inversion slab was applied prior to data acquisition to suppress structures adjacent to the left atrium (LA) and PVs, thereby improving the conspicuity of the PV and LA. Compared with other MR angiography methods using an inversion pulse, the proposed method does not require signal subtraction and the inversion slab is not parallel to the imaging slab. The feasibility of the proposed method was demonstrated in healthy subjects. The inversion slab thickness and inversion time were optimized to be 60 mm and 500 ms, respectively. Compared to conventional gradient recalled echo imaging without inversion, the proposed technique significantly increased the contrast-to-noise ratios between the LA and the right atrium by 20-fold (P < 0.01), increased the contrast-to-noise ratios between the PVs and right atrium by 10-fold (P < 0.03), and increased the contrast-to-noise ratios between the PVs, LA and pulmonary artery by 4-fold (P < 0.01 for both). The signal-to-noise ratios of the PVs and the LA were similar with and without the inversion slab (P > 0.3). The proposed technique greatly enhances the conspicuity of the PVs and LA without significant loss of signal-to-noise ratio.
我们提出了一种非对比增强的、三维的、自由呼吸的、心电图门控的梯度回波序列，带有用于肺静脉（PV）MRI 的板状选择反转。在数据采集之前应用矢状面反转板，以抑制与左心房（LA）和 PV 相邻的结构，从而提高 PV 和 LA 的对比度。与使用反转脉冲的其他 MR 血管造影方法相比，该方法不需要信号减法，并且反转板不与成像板平行。该方法在健康受试者中表现出可行性。优化了反转板厚度和反转时间分别为 60mm 和 500ms。与没有反转的常规梯度回波成像相比，该技术显著提高了 LA 和右心房之间的对比噪声比 20 倍（P < 0.01），提高了 PV 和右心房之间的对比噪声比 10 倍（P < 0.03），并提高了 PV、LA 和肺动脉之间的对比噪声比 4 倍（两者均为 P < 0.01）。PV 和 LA 的信噪比在有无反转板时相似（P > 0.3）。该技术在不显著降低信噪比的情况下，极大地提高了 PV 和 LA 的对比度。
