An in-vivo comparison of STEAM and 2nd order motion compensated spin-echo imaging in multi-phase cardiac DTI at 3T

Cardiac diffusion tensor imaging (cDTI) is a novel non-invasive method of interrogating myocardial microstructure that has seen a recent surge in interest. Many of the most interesting clinical results were obtained using stimulated echo acquisition mode (STEAM) imaging at multiple cardiac phases. Recently however, spin-echo cDTI with second order motion compensated diffusion gradients (M012-SE) was proposed. In this study we report results of a comparison of M012-SE and STEAM imaging in multiple cardiac phases at 3T in 15 healthy subjects with matched sequence parameters. While M012-SE provides comparable quality data in systole, STEAM is the more reliable technique in diastole.