Multicenter Study Comparing PSIR Motion Correction Late Gadolinium Enhancement Sequence with TurboFLASH and TrueFISP Late Gadolinium Enhancement Sequences

Abstract

PURPOSE: The Phase-Sensitive Inversion Recovery with Motion Correction (PSIRMoCo) is an improved single-shot rapid LGE sequence, which has higher spatial resolution compared to the traditional TrueFISP sequence and shorten acquisition time compared to the TurboFLASH sequence. This study aims to investigate a PSIRMoCo prototype against TurboFLASH and TrueFISP in terms of acquisition time and image quality. METHOD AND MATERIALS: Inclusion criteria was patients/volunteers undergoing LGE CMR. Exclusion criteria was patients who did not have late gadolinium enhancement images. A total of 70 subjects (70% male, 17% had arrhythmia, 2% were poor breath-holders) were recruited in two hospitals. Patients were recruited consecutively for a 6-month period. Data was all acquired on 1.5T MAGNETOM Avanto scanner (Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany). MRI TurboFLASH images were acquired first at 8 minutes post contrast injection followed by the PSIRMoCo sequence and the TrueFISP PSIR sequence. Images with poor contrast differentiation between the myocardium and blood pool were excluded from the analysis. Acquisition time was measured based on the timings from the MRI times stated on the images. Image quality was assessed by 2 doctors separately without access to the image information, using a 4-point Likert scale (4 for the best, 1 for the worst). A P-value<0.05 was regarded as statistically significant. ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis H test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for comparing the three groups. RESULTS: The total scan times for PSIRMoCo, TurboFLASH and TrueFISP were 187ą43 sec, 636ą144 sec, and 164ą37sec, respectively (p<0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in scan time between PSIR MoCo and TrueFISP. Image quality scores of the three groups were 3.8ą0.26, 3.3ą0.47, and 3.5ą0.31, respectively (p=0.0001). Separately, PSIRMoCo showed a statistically higher image quality score compared to TurboFLASH (p<0.0001) and TrueFISP (p=0.008). CONCLUSION: PSIR MoCo shows statistically significant time saving compared to TurboFLASH and better image quality compared to TurboFLASH and TrueFISP. CLINICAL RELEVANCE/APPLICATION: PSIR MoCo should be considered for routine use instead of TurboFLASH as it saves approximately just under 8 minutes in scan time with improved image quality.