The free-breathing motion-corrected phase sensitive inversion recovery sequence provides improved myocardial fibrosis evaluation while significantly shortening acquisition time upon comparison to conventional gradient echo sequences: a tripartite comparison of phase-sensitive inversion recovery sequences.

This article includes original research performed at a US Academic Center related to comparison of three separate Phase-Sensitive Inversion Recovery (PSIR) pulse sequences (Breath-hold Single-Shot SFFP, Breath-hold TurboFLASH, and Free-breathing Motion-Corrected SSFP) evaluating the ability of each PSIR sequence to demonstrate myocardial hyperenhancement.  All three PSIR sequences were performed as a part of a cardiac MRI performed on a patient clinically referred for cardiac MRI with and without contrast.  A total of 28 patients were examined with the three PSIR sequences.  All three PSIR sequences were performed in the short axis 10 – 25 minutes after intravenous injection of a Gadolinium-based contrast agent. 

Evaluation of the PSIR sequences ability to detect myocardial late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) was performed by a retrospective review by two blinded, experienced cardiovascular imagers.  The review was a qualitative inspection that included grading by a 5-point Likert scale for the sequence’s ability to resist motion artifact, image resolution, ability to visualize hyperenhancement, and overall satisfaction.  The number of myocardial segments demonstrating LGE was also quantitated, and the acquisition time of each PSIR sequence was performed.

To our knowledge this is the first study that compares the 3 available PSIR LGE sequences with a specific attention to acquisition time (TA).  Given our initial study resulted in the conclusion that the motion-corrected SSFP PSIR sequence was superior the the TurboFLASH Gradient Echo PSIR sequence in regards to evaluator grading and acquisition time efficiency.

本研究源自美国学术中心的原创性科研工作，旨在对比三种独立的相位敏感反转恢复（Phase-Sensitive Inversion Recovery, PSIR）脉冲序列——屏气单次激发SFFP、屏气TurboFLASH以及自由呼吸运动校正SSFP，评估各PSIR序列显示心肌超强化的能力。所有三种PSIR序列均作为心脏磁共振成像（cardiac MRI）的组成部分，纳入临床转诊行对比剂增强与非对比剂增强心脏MRI的患者中完成采集。最终共纳入28名患者完成三种PSIR序列的扫描，且所有序列均于静脉注射钆类对比剂后的10~25分钟内，以短轴位完成采集。

本研究由两名盲法评估的资深心血管影像医师通过回顾性分析，评估各PSIR序列检测心肌迟发性钆对比剂强化（late gadolinium enhancement, LGE）的能力。评估采用定性分析方式，通过5级李克特量表对各序列的抗运动伪影能力、图像分辨率、超强化可视化能力及整体满意度进行评分；同时定量统计显示LGE的心肌节段数量，并记录各PSIR序列的扫描采集时长。

据我们所知，本研究为首个针对三种现有PSIR LGE序列展开对比的研究，且重点关注其扫描采集时间（acquisition time, TA）。本前期研究结论显示，在评估者评分与采集时间效率方面，运动校正SSFP PSIR序列优于TurboFLASH梯度回波PSIR序列。