New black blood pulse sequence for studies of the heart

The black blood concept is based on the signal void principle of the sequen ces in Spin Echo, SE or FSE, which are very useful for studying the mediast inum and heart. In this setting, new sequences are continuously introduced to eliminate the artifacts caused by breathing and heart movements. One suc h sequence is the Double-IR preparation Black Blood FSE. We report our expe rience in 97 patients, using this new pulse sequence to evaluate cardiac pa thology, and establish comparisons with the conventional Spin Echo sequence s. The study comprises mediastinal disease and aorta and heart explorations . We consider this new Double-IR preparation FSE sequence to be an excellen t choice for evaluating chest, mediastinal and cardiac images. The sequence offers improved spatial resolution of both the vessels and other chest str uctures with respect to conventional Spin Echo imaging. With the exception of patients presenting severe heart problems, or in the presence of intense bradycardia, the required 16 cycles in apnea are well tolerated. The purpo se of the present study is to present our initial results with this new pul se sequence as applied to cardiac pathology, in comparison with conventiona l Spin Echo imaging.