Supplementary Fig. 3.

Triggering increases examination time in a heart-rate dependent fashion. Slower heart rates result in higher examination times when acquisitions are triggered. The length of non-triggered acquisition with TR = 8000 ms (3:46) is shown as solid green line; the total time for two back-to-back acquisitions is shown as dotted green line. With the single slice per heart cycle strategy we used (black dots), examination length increases to more than double of that of the non-triggered acquisition if average heart rate falls below 123 beats/min (bpm) as visible from a second order polynomial fit shown as solid black line. However as the acquisition time of a single slice is about 100 ms on our 3 T scanner, 2 slices could be collected in a single heart cycle if the heart rate is between 120 and 150 bpm, and 3 slices if the heart rate is below 120 bpm. The total expected examination time with multiple acquisitions in a single heart cycle is depicted as red dots, and a second order polynomial fit represented by a red line. Note, that these expected values are valid for a trigger delay of 200 ms.