Free-breathing joint T1-T2 and extracellular volume mapping of the long-term transplanted heart at 3T.

Motivation: Transplanted hearts face less rejection after a year but still require monitoring for complications; free-breathing, precise parametric mapping may aid this. Goal(s): To characterize a free-breathing joint T1-T2 cardiac MRI technique named PARMA in long-term heart-transplant recipients. Approach: We compared PARMA T1, T2 and extracellular volume maps to routine maps as well as quantitative stress perfusion and the X-ray angiography microcirculatory resistance in 39 heart transplant recipients. Results: Free-breathing parametric mapping was successful in all participants with equivalent or better performance compared to routine techniques, but no correlation was found with quantitative stress perfusion or microcirculatory resistance. Impact: Transplanted hearts face less rejection after a year but still require monitoring for complications. We therefore demonstrated the feasibility and reference range of free-breathing joint T1-T2 mapping in this patient group.