Free-Breathing MOLLI:Application to Myocardial T1 Mapping

• Main Authors: Jyun-Ming Tsai, 蔡俊明
• Other Authors: Teng-Yi Huang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2012
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/23822889748770131467

碩士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 電機工程系 === 100 === Among the myocardial T1 mapping techniques, a modified Look-Locker inversion recovery (MOLLI) sequence has been shown practical and highly reproducible. The MOLLI sequence requires patients to hold their breath for 17 heartbeats during the scanning process to minimize respiratory motion-related artifacts. However, some patients cannot hold their breath because of illness or limited breath-hold capacity. This study presents a free-breathing MOLLI (FB-MOLLI) sequence as well as an optimized reconstruction method to allow in-vivo myocardial T1-weighted imaging without breath-hold. Ten healthy volunteers (10 male; mean age 21.7 ± 2.45 years old) participated in this study after providing institutionally approved consent. The FB-MOLLI sequence acquires 20 images within 30 heartbeats. This reconstruction program employs an automatic image registration technique and compares two retrospective selection methods. Results demonstrated that the proposed two selected methods substantially improved the accuracy and the reproducibility of T1 measurements. The FB-MOLLI method provides a robust tool for clinical application in free-breathing myocardial T1-weighted imaging. It could greatly facilitate the acquisition procedures during such a routine examination.