Free-breathing respiratory-navigator-gated 2D radial MR fingerprinting of the transplanted heart at 3T.

Motivation: To acquire T1, T2 and ECV maps in heart transplant recipients using a free-breathing technique that minimizes through-plane motion. Goal(s): To characterize a free-breathing 2D joint T1/T2 cardiac MR fingerprinting technique named PARMA that includes a lung-liver navigator in the patient setting. Approach: We compared the resulting maps to gold standard maps in a phantom and to clinical routine maps in 10 healthy volunteers and 9 heart transplant recipients. Results: We found high accuracy in the phantom and high precision in the volunteers and heart transplant recipients. Impact: This work demonstrates the feasibility of a free-breathing 2D joint T1/T2 MR fingerprinting in a heart transplant recipient population that cannot always perform long breath holds. The navigator allows a free breathing acquisition with limited through-plane motion.