Accelerated ferumoxytol-enhanced free-running acquisitions for whole-heart angiography in congenital heart disease patients.

Motivation: Angiography using ferumoxytol-enhanced free-running MRI can be obtained within an acquisition window of 6 minutes, which could be further reduced for faster clinical workflows. Goal(s): To determine the lower bounds of scan time for fast free-running whole-heart MRI using a data-driven reconstruction (SIMBA). Approach: Fifteen datasets were retrospectively undersampled and image quality metrics were determined as a function of scan time reduction. Results: A 3-minute acquisition provides comparable image quality to that of its original 6-minute counterpart, and when applying compressed sensing we can confidently further reduce the acquisition time of 3D MR angiography with high resolution to 2 minutes. Impact: Free-running whole-heart MRI acquisitions can be greatly sped-up by exploiting ferumoxytol contrast enhancement, in conjunction with a data-driven reconstruction, which facilitates fast whole-heart angiography in congenital heart disease patients.