Optimised Reduced Field of View and Fat Suppression Techniques in Interleaved Multi-slice Diffusion Tensor Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance

Motivation: A reduced Phase Encoding (PE) FOV is often used to reduce artefacts in Diffusion Tensor Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (DT-CMR) and effective fat suppression is important to avoid problematic displaced fat signals. Goal(s): To assess and optimise the performance of reduced PE FOV and fat suppression techniques on interleaved multi-slice Spin Echo (SE) DT-CMR. Approach: Four reduced PE FOV techniques and three fat suppression techniques were implemented and compared in 6 subjects. Results: The flip-back sequence and binomial water selective excitation are effective and complimentary methods of suppressing signals outside the desired FOV and originating from fat in multi-slice DT-CMR. Impact: Robust fat suppression provided by binomial water selective excitation in combination with reduced phase FOV DT-CMR compatible with interleaved multi-slice imaging, will enable efficient spin echo based assessment of the cardiac microstructure in future clinical studies.