Highly accelerated, millimeter in-plane resolution myocardial perfusion imaging using a 32-channel 3.0 T MR system

Purpose: In current clinical practice perfusion MRI is generally confined to 3–4mm in-plane resolution due to the competing constraints of the short first passage of contrast agent, temporal resolution, anatomic coverage, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR). The synergy between the SNR advantages of many element coil arrays and high magnetic field strengths together with the speed benefit of parallel imaging can overcome these difficulties. To approach this goal, this study examines the applicability of highly accelerated first pass perfusion imaging with millimeter in-plane spatial res…