Navigator-Gated Whole Heart Coronary MRI with 3D Isotropic Double Echo TrueFISP UTE

Sonia Nielles-Vallespin¹, Peter Speier¹, Peter Weale², Saurabh Shah², Edgar Mueller¹

A free-breathing navigator-gated isotropic 3D radial double echo UTE TrueFISP sequence has been implemented and used to acquire isotropic whole heart coronary images of healthy volunteers with a total scan time of about 13 min. This method provides state-of-the-art TrueFISP whole heart coronary images plus UTE images at almost no extra cost, only slightly longer TR, opening up the possibility to obtain a new contrast for a range of cardiovascular MR applications, such as detection of calcification in atherosclerotic plaque, depiction of fibrosis in the heart or visualization of iron labeled cells.