Fig. 7

Comparison of breath-hold black blood imaging techniques in two patients undergoing CMR. Top row: 44-year-old patient with normal caliber thoracic aorta and left ventricular ejection fraction of 62%. From left to right: 2D bSSFP; dual inversion-turbo spin echo (DIR-TSE); variable flip angle (VFA)-TSE without blood suppression; VFA-TSE with blood suppression of 100 mT/ms applied along all three coordinate axes; 3D uSSFP. The blood pool signal in the thoracic aorta is well suppressed with all techniques. The wall of the descending aorta is sharply delineated with 3D uSSFP but appears blurred with both VFA-TSE acquisitions. The wall is well shown by DIR-TSE in the upper and middle segments but is less distinct in the lower segment. Moreover, the ascending aorta is less well depicted with VFA-TSE than by the other dark blood techniques. Bottom row: 86-year-old patient with aneurysmal thoracic aorta and severely decreased left ventricular ejection fraction of 26%. From left to right: DIR-TSE; VFA-TSE with blood suppression of 50 mT/ms applied along all three coordinate axes; 3D uSSFP. The blood pool is well suppressed with 3D uSSFP, but substantial intraluminal signal (arrows) remains with DIR-TSE and VFA-TSE