Towards Single-Shot Whole-Heart T1 Mapping Within Four Seconds

Motivation: While$$$~T_1~$$$of the whole heart provides valuable diagnostic information, conventional methods are limited to single-slice acquisitions requiring multiple acquisitions and prolonging measurements due to repetitive breath-holds. Goal(s): Development of rapid multi-slice $$$T_1~$$$mapping with high spatial resolution. Approach: A radial single-shot IR-FLASH with slice-interleaved SMS-readout and total acquisition time of four seconds is combined with model-based reconstruction exploiting a linear subspace. The technique was validated in phantom and in-vivo scans. Results: Accuracy of $$$T_1$$$ in a phantom study were independent of simulated heart-rates with mean difference under$$$~8~ms$$$. Nine high-resolution short-axis myocardial$$$~T_1~$$$maps with whole-heart coverage were compared to Open-MOLLI and single-slice IR-FLASH showing a difference of$$$~38~ms$$$. Impact: High resolution multi-slice $$$T_1$$$ quantification covering the whole-heart can be achieved within a short breath-hold of four seconds, which improves patient comfort, reduces motion artifacts, and improves the clinical feasibility of whole-heart $$$T_1$$$ mapping.