One-shot black-blood late gadolinium enhancement imaging combined with PROST denoising for fast and accurate myocardial scar imaging

Motivation: Black-blood late gadolinium enhancement has shown promise for enhanced myocardial scar visualization, where conventional bright-blood falls short. However, it implies multi-shot image acquisition followed by averaging to improve quality, resulting in time-consuming acquisition, with multiple breath-holds. Goal(s): We propose black-blood one-shot PROST, a time-efficient one-shot free-breathing black-blood sequence combined with image denoising for diagnostically accurate scar imaging. Approach: The proposed technique was compared with reference standard sequences in patients with myocardial infarction. Results: Black-blood one-shot PROST reached excellent agreement with conventional imaging in terms of diagnosis and image quality, while being considerably faster. Impact: The proposed black-blood one-shot PROST imaging permits faster planning for MR technicians, simplified interpretation for the medical professionals through qualitative and quantitative images without residual motion artifacts and more comfort for the patient, promoted by free-breathing acquisition.