A novel profile/view ordering with a non-convex star shutter for high-resolution 3D volumetric T1 mapping under multiple breath-holds

PURPOSE To examine a novel non-convex star ordering/shutter for reducing the number of breath-holds in cardiac three-dimensional (3D) T1 Mapping MRI with multiple breath-holds. METHODS A novel ordering, Non-Convex Star (NCS) was designed to acquire 3D volumes in a modified look-locker inversion recovery (MOLLI) T1 mapping sequence to provide more spatial resolution and coverage in fewer breath-holds. The proposed 3D-MOLLI approach using NCS was first validated in two phantoms using artifact power (AP) measurement against the fully sampled phantom. This was followed by an in vivo study in seven swine, in which the T1 values of the left ventricular (LV) myocardium divided into the American Heart Association (AHA) 16-segment model was compared against the reference multislice two-dimensional (2D) clinical reference and 3D volume without NCS breath-hold reduction. RESULTS NCS breath-hold reduction yielded less AP compared with the matched SENSE accelerated phantom volume (P