Figure 14.

(1) Reformatted coronary depiction in three representative healthy volunteers obtained with a conventional T₂-prepared bright-blood CMRA acquisition (a, d, g) and the proposed BOOST sequence for simultaneous bright-blood (T₂Prep-IR BOOST datasets in b, e, h) and black-blood (PSIR BOOST datasets in c, f, i) whole-heart MRI. Quantified CNR_blood−myo significantly improved with the proposed T₂Prep-IR BOOST approach in comparison to the conventional CMRA, thus leading to a higher quantified coronary percentage vessel sharpness (%VS) for both right and left coronary arteries. In the PSIR BOOST images in (c, f, i), the efficacy of blood signal suppression can be appreciated along multiple portions of the coronary tree. (2) MRI images obtained in the ex vivo pig heart. All the images depict a short-axis view at the midventricular level. Images acquired with the proposed BOOST sequence are reported in (a) (bright-blood T₂Prep-IR dataset) and in (b) (black-blood PSIR-like reconstruction). RV, LV, thrombus, and interventricular septum are indicated. The black-blood reconstruction (b) clearly enhances the signal from the thrombus when compared to the bright-blood dataset (a). Furthermore, 2D T₁ (c) and T₂ (d) mapping techniques were acquired. The ex vivo thrombus is characterized by a relatively short T₁ and T₂. BOOST, Bright-blood and black-blOOd phase SensiTive; IR, inversion recovery; myo, myocardium; PSIR, phase-sensitive inversion recovery; T₂Prep, T₂ prepared; LV, left ventricular cavity; RV, right ventricular cavity. Adapted with permission from Ginami et al. (98).