Efficient Myocardial Spectroscopy combining Metabolite-Cycling with Respiratory Bellows at 3T

Despite its diagnostic values1-4, the application of cardiac spectroscopy (CMRS) in clinical routine is generally limited by technical challenges and long scan times. A protocol for CMRS is proposed using metabolite-cycling, local, ECG-triggered shimming, ECG-triggering and a respiratory bellows. The protocol is evaluated in a volunteer cohort and provides myocardial triglyceride content (MTGC) quantification results that correlate well intrasession- (r=0.98, p<0.001) and intersession-wise (r=0.95, p<0.001). Thus, a good repeatibility and technical stability for the quantification of MTGC could be achieved with an average scan time of 440s at 3T.