Comparison of the Extent of Delayed-Enhancement Cardiac Magnetic Resonance Imaging With and Without Phase-Sensitive Reconstruction at 3.0 T

Abstract

To evaluate phase-sensitive reconstructed images versus magnitude images generated by an inversion recovery pulse sequence for the determination of myocardial infarct size in delayed-enhancement cardiac magnetic resonance (DE-CMR) at 3 T. Thirty patients were examined at 3 T and DE images were obtained 10 minutes after contrast agent administration using a phase-sensitive breath-hold segmented inversion recovery gradient echo sequence. From magnitude and phase images, the percentage of hyperenhanced myocardium was expressed. Contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) measurements were performed in hyperenhanced and normal myocardium. We observed excellent correlation and concordance between hyperenhanced myocardium determined on phase-sensitive reconstructed and magnitude images. The mean CNR values were significantly higher in phase-sensitive reconstructed images compared with magnitude images (10.5 ± 5.4 vs. 6.1 ± 4.8; P Conclusions: DE-CMR with phase-sensitive reconstruction at 3.0 T provides similar results to magnitude images, but with a significantly greater CNR between infarcted and normal myocardium.