Inline myocardial t2* mapping with iterative robust fitting

Myocardial T2* measurement is a valuable tool for non-invasive assessment of iron overload, and is clinically employed for planning and monitoring iron-chelating treatments for transfused thalassemia major patients [ 1 ]. Presently, for T2* assessment, dark-blood prepared gradient echo (GRE) images are acquired at multiple echo times (TEs). Thereafter, these images are analyzed within offline software such as CMRTools:ThalassaemiaTools®, in which the septal signal of a full thickness ROI is fitted to a monoexponential decay curve to estimate myocardial T2* [ 2 ]. The goal of this study was to develop and test a T2* measurement technique with automated inline T2*-map generation. Availability of such a technique on commercial MR systems may further utilization of such measurements in this patient group.