3D Whole-heart T1-weighted Imaging in a Two-minute Free-breathing Scan for Radiofrequency Ablation Lesion Assessment

Motivation: MRI-guided arrhythmia interventions require fast, high-resolution 3D images for comprehensive intraprocedural assessment of radio-frequency ablation lesion size and depth. Goal(s): Demonstrate similar volumetric lesion quantification between ground-truth respiratory-navigated Cartesian imaging and a novel free-breathing 3D cone-trajectory sequence. Approach: 4 healthy Yorkshire swine were ablated inside the MRI scanner, with 12 lesions prescribed in total. Volumetric analysis was performed for both Cartesian and 3D cones imaging. Results: Non-contrast T1-weighted 3D cones imaging with a highly accelerated scan time less than two minutes demonstrated similar lesion volumes to the slower 3D Cartesian sequence. Impact: Currently, non-contrast ablation lesion assessment in patients requires 5-10 minutes, depending on breathing patterns. The free-breathing 3D cone trajectory sequence presented here is a time-efficient method for lesion characterization that is feasible for intraprocedural applications.