Highly-Accelerated Real-Time Myocardial Tagging for Exercise CMR at 3T

Combined cardiac MRI and exercise (Ex-CMR) is a stress imaging test with promising applications in cardiovascular disease (CVD). Ex-CMR myocardial tagging could provide insights into myocardial deformation post-exercise. We sought to develop an SSFP-based highly-accelerate (12-fold) free-breathing ECG-free real time tagging sequence for quantification of beat-to-beat variation of myocardial deformation at rest and after exercise. The proposed real time sequence achieved a spatiotemporal resolution of 2 x 2 mm2 and 27.6 ms. Feasibility of real time imaging at 3T post-exercise was demonstrated in patients with heart failure with preserved (HFpEF) and reduced (HFrEF) ejection fraction.