Cardiac DTI Inline Automated Processing and On-scanner Diffusion Parameter Map Visualization Using FIRE

Motivation: Cardiac DTI provides a non-invasive tool to assess microstructure in the heart; however, its clinical use remains hindered by offline post-processing. Goal(s): To achieve inline automated processing and on-scanner results visualization for cardiac DTI. Approach: Inline automated post-processing pipeline was implemented using FIRE incorporating motion correction, diffusion tensor fitting, and automatic myocardial center detection for helix angle map generation. Results: Inline processing time on scanner for 5 slices was 1 minute. Diffusion parameter maps were successfully generated prospectively in 28 volunteers and 19 patients, except for myocardial center detection failure in 2 slices from one volunteer. Impact: Inline processing enables evaluation of diffusion parameters immediately on scanner or in PACS and enables wide-spread distribution and clinical evaluation of cardiac DTI. Thus, this work implements a key step towards clinical use of cardiac DTI.