NORMAL HEART - EVALUATION WITH ECHO-PLANAR MR-IMAGING

PURPOSE: To evaluate the appearance of the heart on spin-echo (SE) and gradient-echo (GRE) echo-planar magnetic resonance (MR) images. MATER IALS AND METHODS: Nine healthy volunteers were examined with an MR ima ger with transaxial echo-planar imaging (EPI) capabilities. SE EPI and GRE EPI sequences were used. Full k-space signal was obtained with re adout time of 40 msec per image, and total image acquisition time was 72 and 52 msec, respectively, for SE EPI and GRE EPI. RESULTS: Delinea tion of cardiac structures was superior with SE EPI, reflective of sig nificantly higher contrast between myocardial and intraluminal signal intensity (SI) (P < .001). The higher (P < .01) and more homogeneous ( P < .001) intraluminal SI with GRE EPI allowed better assessment of in tracardiac flow. Septal SI was significantly higher for GRE EPI (P < . 01), but signal homogeneity was similar for both sequences (P > .2). C ONCLUSION: Diagnostic images of the heart were obtained with both SE E PI and GRE EPI. GRE EPI is more suitable for flow studies because of t he higher and more homogeneous intravascular SI.