Dark-Blood Delayed-Enhancement MRI: Improved Tissue Contrast and Blood-Pool Signal Suppression
Unmet Need
Delayed-enhancement MRI (DE-MRI) is the standard for imaging myocardial infarction (MI), providing high-resolution maps of infarcted and viable myocardium. However, DE-MRI often suffers from poor differentiation between infarcted myocardium and the bright left ventricular (LV) blood-pool after contrast administration. This overlap can obscure infarcts, leading to missed diagnoses in certain patients, such as those with non-Q-wave chronic MI. This highlights the need for improved imaging techniques that can better distinguish between infarcted tissue and adjacent blood-pool.
Technology
Dr. Raymond Kim has developed a novel MRI technique called flow-independent dark-blood delayed-enhancement MRI (FIDDLE) that addresses this challenge. FIDDLE improves the visualization of infarcted myocardium by effectively suppressing the blood-pool signal. This is accomplished by a unique pulse sequence that includes a preparatory section designed to modify the organ tissue signal differently than the blood pool signal, followed by an inversion pulse. This sequence leverages the distinct relaxation times of tissue and blood, allowing the MRI signals to evolve separately, resulting in clear separation and suppression of the blood-pool signal without dependence on blood flow speed. This approach allows for clear separation and suppression of the blood-pool signal, providing superior diagnostic performance for detecting myocardial infarction compared to conventional DE-MRI. For more details see the left-hand side of the page for links to the issued U.S. patent and publication.
Advantages
- Enhances the visualization of infarcted myocardium by suppressing the blood-pool signal, addressing the issue of poor differentiation in traditional DE-MRI.
- Insensitive to blood flow characteristics, ensuring consistent suppression of blood-pool signal even in slow or stagnant blood pools.
- Offers improved diagnostic accuracy and decision-making in MI evaluation, advancing the standard for both clinical practice and research.