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Figure 20 | Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance

Figure 20

From: Cardiovascular magnetic resonance physics for clinicians: part II

Figure 20

Inversion recovery curves at 5-15mins post-injection. Inversion recovery curves at 5, 10 and 15 minutes post-injection and relative signal levels obtained by choosing TI values to suppress signal form MVO (purple curves) at 5 minutes post injection and normal myocardium signal (red curves) at 10 and 15 minutes post-injection. Curves are shown of both the z-magnetisation, Mz expressed as a fraction of the magnetisation at equilibrium, Mo (Mz/Mo) and the modulus of this value, (|Mz/Mo|), representative of the actual displayed signal intensity. In EGE, the difference between T1 in the MVO compartment and surrounding scar and normal myocardium is emphasized by using a long TI which minimises the signal from the MVO. A TI of 440 ms will null the signal from MVO (T1 = 640 ms at 5 minutes post-injection). With this choice of TI, surrounding scar and normal myocardium appear bright, thus enabling identification of MVO (left panel). At 10 and 15 minutes post-injection, the differences in T1 between normal myocardium and scar begin to emerge due to delayed accumulation of contrast in the enlarged interstitial space of the scar. To maximise contrast between scar and normal myocardium, a TI of 300 ms is chosen to null the signal from normal myocardium at 10 min LGE images (middle panel). As T1 values continue to change between 10 and 15 minutes post injection, the optimal nulling time rises to 320 ms in at 15 minutes post-injection for the example presented above (right panel).

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