Automated Contrast Selection for Robust Bright- and Black-Blood Myocardial Scar Imaging

Phase-sensitive inversion recovery is the reference imaging technique for the assessment of myocardial scars. Despite its ability to provide excellent contrast between healthy and scar tissue, small subendocardial scars can be challenging to detect due to poor scar-to-blood contrast. Joint bright- and black-blood late gadolinium enhancement techniques have been developed to provide both scar and anatomy information. Black-blood contrast is obtained after manual selection of an optimal inversion time (TI). This often results in uncertainties, variability, increased workload, and operator-dependency. In this work, we propose a method exploiting artificial intelligence to fully automate TI selection for more robust cardiac imaging.