Abstract #2521

Song R, Song H

An accurate measurement of transverse relaxation parameters is of growing importance in the non-invasive determination of iron concentration in subjects with iron-overloading diseases. In this work, a free-breathing, dark blood GESFIDE (gradient-echo sampling of free induction decay and echo) pulse sequence was developed and implemented for the measurement of R2, R2*, and R2' in the heart. Enhancements to the sequence include a short TE crossed-pair navigator and a navigator-restore inversion pulse to maintain strong respiratory gating signal from the liver. The improved sequence enables robust measurement of transverse relaxation rates of the myocardium in a single free-breathing scan.