Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
4227234 European Journal of Radiology 2011 6 Pages PDF
Abstract

PurposeTo show that the use of an early and delayed contrast enhanced multislice inversion recovery steady state free precession (SS-IR-SSFP) is a valuable substitute for conventional post-contrast fat saturated turbo spin-echo (TSE) T1-weighted images in the assessment of cardiac tumors.Materials and methods34 consecutive patients referred for MRI in order to assess cardiac tumors were examined. Shortly after administration of gadopenetate dimeglumine (Gd-DTPA) images were obtained using a SS-IR-SSFP sequence. The inversion time (TI) was set at 350 ms to achieve a good demarcation of intracavitary tumor spread. Hereafter 9 slices of a T1w TSE sequence were obtained. Finally a SS-IR-SSFP sequence with an optimized TI to null normal myocardium was employed. Quantitative comparisons were performed by calculating contrast to noise ratios of tumor/myocardium (CNRtumor/myo) and CNR of tumor/left ventricular cavity (CNRtumor/LVC). Image quality was assessed regarding overall image quality, artifacts and tumor conspicuity.ResultsNeither calculation of CNRtumor/LVC when comparing the early IR-SSFP and T1w TSE, nor calculation of CNRtumor/myo when comparing the late IR-SSFP and T1w TSE sequence resulted in statistically significant differences. However, qualitative assessments revealed significant superior results for the early and the late IR-SSFP images compared to the T1-weighted TSE images (p < 0.001).ConclusionsImage quality and tumor conspicuity were superior and image degradation by artifacts was less on IR-SSFP images compared to TSE images without loss of CNR. Thus the use of IR-SSFP sequences is an attractive alternative imaging method compared to post-contrast T1w TSE imaging in the assessment of cardiac tumors.

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