UCLA

Purpose

To extend the MR MultiTasking-based Multidimensional Assessment of Cardiovascular System (MT-MACS) technique with larger spatial coverage and water-fat separation for comprehensive aortocardiac assessment.

Methods

MT-MACS adopts a low-rank tensor image model for 7D imaging, with three spatial dimensions for volumetric imaging, one cardiac motion dimension for cine imaging, one respiratory motion dimension for free-breathing imaging, one T2-prepared inversion recovery time dimension for multi-contrast assessment, and one T2*-decay time dimension for water-fat separation. Nine healthy subjects were recruited for the 3T study. Overall image quality was scored on bright-blood (BB), dark-blood (DB), and gray-blood (GB) contrasts using a 4-point scale (0-poor to 3-excellent) by two independent readers, and their interreader agreement was evaluated. Myocardial wall thickness and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) were quantified on DB and BB contrasts, respectively. The agreement in these metrics between MT-MACS and conventional breath-held, electrocardiography-triggered 2D sequences were evaluated.

Results

MT-MACS provides both water-only and fat-only images with excellent image quality (average score = 3.725/3.780/3.835/3.890 for BB/DB/GB/fat-only images) and moderate to high interreader agreement (weighted Cohen's kappa value = 0.727/0.668/1.000/1.000 for BB/DB/GB/fat-only images). There were good to excellent agreements in myocardial wall thickness measurements (intraclass correlation coefficients [ICC] = 0.781/0.929/0.680/0.878 for left atria/left ventricle/right atria/right ventricle) and LVEF quantification (ICC = 0.716) between MT-MACS and 2D references. All measurements were within the literature range of healthy subjects.

Conclusion

The refined MT-MACS technique provides multi-contrast, phase-resolved, and water-fat imaging of the aortocardiac systems and allows evaluation of anatomy and function. Clinical validation is warranted.