COMPARISON OF 4 MAGNETIZATION PREPARATION SCHEMES TO IMPROVE BLOOD-WALL CONTRAST IN CINE SHORT-AXIS CARDIAC IMAGING

Improvements in short-axis blood-myocardium contrast in the heart with the use of four magnetization preparation schemes applied before the imaging sequence are demonstrated, Gradient-echo cine cardiac images a re acquired and compared at 0.95 T incorporating T-2,, T-1 rho,,, magn etization transfer, and double inversion (black blood) preparations in a series of volunteer studies over the first 550 ms of the cardiac cy cle, T-2 ,and T-1 rho,, preparations exhibit improvements of 100% and above in image contrast, Magnetization transfer preparation exhibits i mprovements of 50% in image contrast, whereas an initial improvement ( 50%) followed by a large loss in contrast is observed using the black blood preparation. Improvements in contrast are dependent on tissue re laxation parameters and therefore are suitable for studies involving p atients exhibiting poor in-flow enhancement of blood caused by poor he art function.