Accelerating cine phase-contrast flow measurements using k-t BLAST and k-t SENSE

Abstract

Conventional phase-contrast velocity mapping in the ascending aorta was combined with k-t BLAST and k-t SENSE. Up to 5.3-fold net acceleration was achieved, enabling single breath-hold acquisitions. A standard phase-contrast (PC) sequence with interleaved acquisition of the velocity-encoded segments was modified to collect data in 2 stages, a high-resolution undersampled and a low-resolution fully sampled training stage. In addition, a modification of the k-t reconstruction strategy was tested. This strategy, denoted as "plug-in," incorporates data acquired in the training stage into the final reconstruction for improved data consistency, similar to conventional keyhole, "k-t SENSE plug-in" was found to provide best image quality and most accurate flow quantification. For this strategy, at least 10 training profiles are required to yield accurate stroke volumes (relative deviation <5%) and good image quality. In vivo 2D cine velocity mapping was performed in 6 healthy volunteers with 30-32 cardiac phases (spatial resolution 1.3 × 1.3 × 8-10 mm3, temporal resolution of 18-38 ms), yielding relative stroke volumes of 106 ± 18% (mean ± 2*SD) and 112 ± 15% for 3.8 × and 5.3× net accelerations, respectively. In summary, k-t BLAST and k-t SENSE are promising approaches that permit significant scan-time reduction in PC velocity mapping, thus making high-resolution breath-held flow quantification possible. © 2005 Wiley-Liss, Inc.