Time-Resolved Spin-Labeled Balanced SSFP Cineangiography for Visualizing Intracardiac Shunt

Federico E. Mordini¹, Ioannis Koktzoglou¹, Robert R. Edelman¹

Existing methods for intracardiac shunt evaluation have important technical limitations. We developed a time-resolved spin-labeled cineangiographic technique (SLC) to image tagged blood within the heart for visualization of intracardiac shunt. Ten subjects with known atrial septal defects (ASD) were evaluated. Tagged inflowing blood was depicted with high signal intensity (SI) while non-tagged blood was suppressed. Flow was visualized crossing the atrial septum both inplane and throughplane. In conclusion, SLC is a non-contrast, non-velocity dependent method for visualizing RF-tagged blood flowing through cardiac chambers. SLC successfully depicted intracardiac shunting in all patients. SLC has potential use in the detection and pre-procedural assessment of ASD.