Thomas Troalen1, Thibaut Capron1, Monique Bernard1, Patrick Cozzone1, Frank Kober1
1Centre de Rsonance Magntique Biologique et Mdicale (CRMBM), UMR CNRS N6612, Facult de Mdecine, Aix-Marseille Universit, Marseille, France
This study presents a novel arterial spin labeling method to assess myocardial perfusion in small rodents. An ECG-gated steady-pulsed labeling approach is combined with simultaneous readout over the cardiac cycle using Cine-FLASH. Perfusion measurements were carried out on twenty mice with both techniques. Perfusion maps and values show good accordance between both experiments. This method allows shorter acquisition times than the previously used Look-Locker FAIR gradient-echo technique while preserving spatial resolution and robustness with respect to cardiac motion. In addition, the stationary regime offers the possibility to increase the signal to noise ratio by averaging over cardiac cycles.