Whole heart diffusion tensor CMR using commercial ultrahigh performance whole body gradients

Motivation: Efficient whole heart noninvasive assessment of the cardiac microstructure has great prognostic and diagnostic potential, but current techniques are typically limited to sparsely distributed slices. Goal(s): Demonstrate whole heart diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DT-CMR) in a clinically feasible scan time. Approach: Motion compensated spin echo (MCSE) acquisitions were performed with interleaved slice imaging and 2D RF pulses using a whole body ultrahigh strength gradient system in 20 healthy volunteers Results: Whole heart data was acquired in <25minutes demonstrating systematic differences in microstructural parameters across the LV myocardium. Impact: Ultrahigh strength gradient enabled whole heart DT-CMR will enable assessment of pathological localised changes in cardiac microstructure.