The recently developed myocardial T1 mapping sequence SMART1Map is based on single-point saturation recovery using adaptive recovery times. Compared with Look-Locker-based techniques such as MOLLI, SMART1Map has been shown to be more accurate in phantoms and virtually independent of imaging parameters and heart rate [1,2]. This is due to the fact that SMART1Map measures the true T1 values rather than the apparent T1 values (also called T1*) measured using Look-Locker based techniques. However, it has not previously been reported in patients under clinical conditions. Therefore,...

SMART1Map was implemented on a 1.5T MR 450 scanner (GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI) and a 32 channel cardiac coil was used in all exams. 15 patients with suspected coronary artery disease were imaged using SMART1Map sequence prior to contrast injection and myocardial delayed enhancement (MDE) scans. SMART1Map acquisition collected 5 different slices with 5 saturation delay times TS in 9 heart beats at 1,1,1,2 and 4 heartbeats after saturation. An additional image, corresponding to an infinite delay time (TS=∞) was acquired without saturation. The imaging...

The measured native T1 values were 1243 ± 43ms, 1453 ± 92ms and 1610 ± 160ms for remote myocardium, infarcted myocardium and blood, respectively, as shown in Fig.1. An MDE image and corresponding T1 map are shown in Fig.2 and Fig.3illustrating infarcted (white arrow) and remote myocardium. The measured remote myocardium T1 values are consistent with the reported T1 values in the literature using single-point saturation recovery methods [3, 4]. The measured myocardial infarct T1 values were significantly higher (p < 0.05) than the remote...

This study demonstrates that SMART1Map is a promising tool for effectively to measuring normal and infarcted myocardium T1 values under clinical conditions. Its robustness and insensitivity to imaging parameters and heart rate variation make it an attractive approach to explore further applications under various pathological conditions.

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