Radiology, Vol 172, 349-350, Copyright © 1989 by Radiological Society of North America
Heart wall motion: improved method of spatial modulation of magnetization for MR imaging
L Axel and L Dougherty
Department of Radiology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
A previously reported method of using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging to
study heart wall motion involves a pair of nonselective radio- frequency
(RF) pulses, separated by a magnetic field gradient pulse, prior to
imaging; this produces images with a regular pattern of stripes that move
with the heart wall and that have a sinusoidal intensity profile. It is
demonstrated in this study that the substitution of more RF pulses, with
their relative amplitudes distributed according to the binomial sequence,
results in sharper stripes. This permits the use of a two-dimensional grid
of stripes for more detailed studies of heart wall motion and provides a
unique method of analyzing regional ventricular myocardial strain.
