Ungated and free-breathing radial simultaneous multi-slice cardiac T1 mapping

Cardiac T1 mapping has been shown to be a promising method for assessing different cardiomyopathies. Most cardiac T1 mapping methods require ECG gating with long breath holds to capture specific desired cardiac phases and to minimize breathing motion. However, certain cardiomyopathies can make it difficult for patients to maintain a breath hold for the duration of a cardiac T1 mapping sequence. Furthermore, some of these diseases, for example atrial fibrillation with changing R-R intervals can make capturing a specific cardiac phase difficult. Here we propose a radial simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) cardiac T1 mapping sequence without ECG gating or breath holding.