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PURPOSE: To demonstrate the feasibility of accelerating measurements of cardiac fiber structure using simultaneous multislice (SMS) imaging. METHODS: SMS excitation with a blipped controlled aliasing (CAIPI) readout was incorporated into a diffusion-encoded stimulated echo pulse sequence to obtain diffusion measurements in three separate slices of the heart (8-mm thickness, 12-mm gap). A novel image entropy-based method for removing image ghosts in blipped CAIPI acquisitions is also introduced that enables SMS imaging of closely spaced slices in the heart. RESULTS: The average retained signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) using this acquisition scheme is 70% ± 5%, higher than the standard 1/3 = 57% SNR penalty with three-fold acceleration. No significant difference was observed in the apparent diffusion coefficient and helix angle diffusion parameters between a time-equivalent conventional single-slice scan and the three-fold accelerated SMS acquisition. A 10% mean bias was observed in fractional anisotropy between single-slice and SMS acquisitions. CONCLUSION: The new sequence was used to obtain high-quality diffusion measurements in three closely spaced cardiac slices in a clinically feasible nine breath-hold examination. The accelerated multiband sequence is anticipated to improve quantitative measurements of cardiac microstructure by reducing the number of breath-holds required for the scan, making it practical to incorporate diffusion tensor measurements within a comprehensive clinical examination.

Original publication

DOI

10.1002/mrm.25200

Type

Journal article

Journal

Magn Reson Med

Publication Date

03/2015

Volume

73

Pages

995 - 1004

Keywords

blipped CAIPI, cardiac, diffusion, multiband, parallel imaging, simultaneous multislice, Adult, Algorithms, Diffusion Tensor Imaging, Heart Ventricles, Humans, Image Enhancement, Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted, Imaging, Three-Dimensional, Male, Reproducibility of Results, Sensitivity and Specificity