STEAM-SASHA: a novel approach for blood- and fat-suppressed native T1 measurement in the right ventricular myocardium

Journal article

Objective: The excellent blood and fat suppression of stimulated echo acquisition mode (STEAM) can be combined with saturation recovery single-shot acquisition (SASHA) in a novel STEAM-SASHA sequence for right ventricular (RV) native T1 mapping. Materials and methods: STEAM-SASHA splits magnetization preparation over two cardiac cycles, nulling blood signal and allowing fat signal to decay. Breath-hold T1 mapping was performed in a T1 phantom and twice in 10 volunteers using STEAM-SASHA and a modified Look-Locker sequence at peak systole at 3T. T1 was measured in 3 RV regions, the septum and left ventricle (LV). Results: In phantoms, MOLLI under-estimated while STEAM-SASHA over-estimated T1, on average by 3.0% and 7.0% respectively, although at typical 3T myocardial T1 (T1 > 1200 ms) STEAM-SASHA was more accurate. In volunteers, T1 was higher using STEAM-SASHA than MOLLI in the LV and septum (p = 0.03, p = 0.006, respectively), but lower in RV regions (p > 0.05). Inter-study, inter-observer and intra-observer coefficients of variation in all regions were < 15%. Blood suppression was excellent with STEAM-SASHA and noise floor effects were minimal. Discussion: STEAM-SASHA provides accurate and reproducible T1 in the RV with excellent blood and fat suppression. STEAM-SASHA has potential to provide new insights into pathological changes in the RV in future studies

Authors: Roehl, M; Conway, M; Ghonim, S; Ferreira, PF; Nielles-Vallespin, S

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Springer
• Journal: Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine
• Volume: 37
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 295-305
• Publication date: 2024-01-12
• DOI: 10.1007/s10334-023-01141-8
• EISSN: 1352-8661
• ISSN: 0968-5243
• Language: English
• Keywords: Cardiology; Internal medicine; Medicine; Ventricle