Feasibility of single breath-hold left ventricular function with 3 Tesla TSENSE acquisition and 3D modeling analysis

Background: A single breath-hold evaluation of ventricular function
would allow assessment in cases where scan time or patient
tolerance is limited. Spatiotemporal acceleration techniques such
as TSENSE decrease cardiovascular MR acquisition time, but standard
slice summation analysis requires enough short axis slices to cover
the left ventricle (LV). By reducing the number of short axis
slices, incorporating long axis slices, and applying a 3D model
based analysis, it may be possible to obtain accurate LV mass and
volumes. We evaluated LV volume, mass and ejection fraction at 3.0T
using a 3D modeling analysis in 9 patients with a history of
myocardial infarction and one healthy volunteer. Acquisition
consisted of a standard short axis SSFP stack and a 15 heart-beat
single breath-hold six slice multi-planar (4 short and 2 long axis)
TSENSE SSFP protocol with an acceleration factor of R = 4. Results:
Differences (standard minus accelerated protocol mean +/- s.d.) and
coefficients of variation (s.d. of differences as a percentage of
the average estimate) were 7.5 +/- 9.6 mL and 6% for end-diastolic
volume (p = 0.035), 0.4 +/- 5.1 mL and 7% for end-systolic volume
(p = NS), 7.1 +/- 8.1 mL and 9% for stroke volume (p = 0.022), 2.2
+/- 2.8% and 5% for ejection fraction (p = 0.035), and -7.1 +/- 6.2
g and 4% for LV mass (p = 0.005), respectively. Intra-and
inter-observer errors were similar for both protocols (p = NS for
all measures). Conclusion: These results suggest that clinically
useful estimates of LV function can be obtained in a TSENSE
accelerated single breath-hold reduced slice acquisition at 3T
using 3D modeling analysis techniques.