Perfusion

Myocardial perfusion is an important measurement in the diagnosis and management of coronary artery disease. While clinical measurement of myocardial perfusion has long been dominated by nuclear imaging, MRI has recently emerged as an alternative method with many significant advantages.Compared to single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), MRI has much higher resolution, requires no radiation dose, and has the potential for more quantitative measurements. MR perfusion measurement can be complex, however, and when designing an MR perfusion experiment there are a variety of choices to consider. Unfortunately, there is no consensus MRI perfusion implementation that is best for all situations, and choosing the ideal parameters for a given scan requires a careful understanding of the pros and cons of each component of an MRI perfusion experiment. In this chapter, we discuss the different components of cardiac perfusion MRI including pulse sequences, image readout, acceleration techniques, and image analysis. In each section, we review the basic theory behind each technique and then discuss their relative advantages and disadvantages. We conclude with a brief discussion of emerging techniques that are currently being researched.