Motion and flow insensitive adiabatic T2‐preparation module for cardiac MR imaging at 3 tesla

A versatile method for generating T₂‐weighting is a T₂‐preparation module, which has been used successfully for cardiac imaging at 1.5T. Although it has been applied at 3T, higher fields (B₀ ≥ 3T) can degrade B₀ and B₁ homogeneity and result in nonuniform magnetization preparation. For cardiac imaging, blood flow and cardiac motion may further impair magnetization preparation. In this study, a novel T₂‐preparation module containing multiple adiabatic B₁‐insensitive refocusing pulses is introduced and compared with three previously described modules [(a) composite MLEV4, (b) modified BIR‐4 (mBIR‐4), and (c) Silver‐Hoult–pair]. In the static phantom, the proposed module provided similar or better B₀ and B₁ insensitivity than the other modules. In human subjects (n = 21), quantitative measurement of image signal coefficient of variation, reflecting overall image inhomogeneity, was lower for the proposed module (0.10) than for MLEV4 (0.15, P < 0.0001), mBIR‐4 (0.27, P < 0.0001), and Silver‐Hoult–pair (0.14, P = 0.001) modules. Similarly, qualitative analysis revealed that the proposed module had the best image quality scores and ranking (both, P < 0.0001). In conclusion, we present a new T₂‐preparation module, which is shown to be robust for cardiac imaging at 3T in comparison with existing methods. Magn Reson Med 70:1360–1368, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.