Fig. 3

Normalized saturation recovery myocardial signal (SR/PD) for b-SSFP protocol (Table 2) versus saturation delay (TS) for various values of tissue gadolinium concentration, [Gd] (left). With short TS protocols it is possible to acquire multiple slices per heart beat with T1 contrast. The contrast to noise ratio increases with TS, with increasing signal non-linearity and eventually at very long TS there is low contrast as the signal recovers. The CNR vs [Gd] is plotted for 2 values of TS (right) corresponding to T2 = 95 and 160 ms, corresponding to 3 and 2 slices/RR at a heart rate of 120 bpm. The increased TS can achieve approx. 40% higher CNR at the cost of less spatial coverage