Rapid T.sub.1 quantification based on 3D phase sensitive inversion recovery

Background In Contrast Enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging fibrotic myocardium can be distinguished from healthy tissue using the difference in the longitudinal T.sub.1 relaxation after administration of Gadolinium, the so-called Late Gd Enhancement. The purpose of this work was to measure the myocardial absolute T.sub.1 post-Gd from a single breath-hold 3D Phase Sensitivity Inversion Recovery sequence (PSIR). Equations were derived to take the acquisition and saturation effects on the magnetization into account. Methods The accuracy of the method was investigated on phantoms and using simulations. The method was applied to a group of patients with suspected myocardial infarction where the absolute difference in relaxation of healthy and fibrotic myocardium was measured at about 15 minutes post-contrast. The evolution of the absolute R.sub.1 relaxation rate (1/T.sub.1 ) over time after contrast injection was followed for one patient and compared to T.sub.1 mapping using Look-Locker. Based on the T.sub.1 maps synthetic LGE images were reconstructed and compared to the conventional LGE images. Results The fitting algorithm is robust against variation in acquisition flip angle, the inversion delay time and cardiac arrhythmia. The observed relaxation rate of the myocardium is 1.2 s.sup.-1.sup., increasing to 6 - 7 s.sup.-1 .sup.after contrast injection and decreasing to 2 - 2.5 s.sup.-1 .sup.for healthy myocardium and to 3.5 - 4 s.sup.-1 .sup.for fibrotic myocardium. Synthesized images based on the T.sub.1 maps correspond very well to actual LGE images. Conclusions The method provides a robust quantification of post-Gd T.sub.1 relaxation for a complete cardiac volume within a single breath-hold.