The signal-averaged DENSE (sav-DENSE) MRI technique increased the signal-to-noise ratio by 15-34% compared to cine DENSE and strongly correlated with myocardial tagging (R = 0.92).
Does the sav-DENSE MRI technique improve signal-to-noise ratio compared to cine DENSE in healthy volunteers?
The sav-DENSE MRI technique improves signal-to-noise ratio by 15-34% compared to cine DENSE while providing accurate quantification of 2D intramyocardial function.
A new technique was developed to increase the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) MRI. This signal-averaged DENSE (sav-DENSE) technique is based on the SNR advantage of extracting a pair of DENSE images with uncorrelated noise from the complex complementary spatial modulation of the magnetization image, and combining them during image reconstruction. Eleven healthy volunteers were imaged at three short-axis locations with the use of sav-DENSE, cine DENSE, and myocardial tagging pulse sequences. In this study, sav-DENSE increased the SNR by 15-34% as compared to cine DENSE. Circumferential strain values measured by sav-DENSE and myocardial tagging were strongly correlated (slope = 0.95, intercept = -0.02, R = 0.92) and within the 95% limits of agreement. The breath-hold sav-DENSE technique yielded relatively accurate and precise quantification of 2D intramyocardial function, with a 40.2-ms temporal resolution and a 3.5 x 3.5 mm2 spatial resolution.
Kim et al. (2004) studied Healthy volunteers (n=11). signal-averaged DENSE (sav-DENSE) MRI vs. cine DENSE and myocardial tagging was evaluated on Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The signal-averaged DENSE (sav-DENSE) MRI technique increased the signal-to-noise ratio by 15-34% compared to cine DENSE and strongly correlated with myocardial tagging (R = 0.92).