Abstract #0082

Srichai M, Kim D, Lee V

Delayed contrast-enhanced (DCE) imaging is becoming a clinically acceptable diagnostic method for assessing the extent of myocardial scar. This inversion-recovery (IR) technique exhibits good contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) between scar and normal myocardium. However, CNR between blood and endocardial scar is frequently poor, because the T1 values of blood and scar at the time of DCE imaging are similar. This limitation may lead to incorrect estimation of the infarct size and obscure the visualization of small endocardial scar. The purpose of this study was to develop a single acquisition bright-blood DSE pulse sequence for improving the CNR between blood and endocardial scar.