Real-Time Black-Blood MRI Using Spatial

A real-time interactive black-blood imaging system is de-scribed. Rapid blood suppression is achieved by exciting and dephasing slabs outside the imaging slice before each imaging excitation. Sharp-profiled radio frequency satura-tion pulses placed close to the imaging slice provide good blood suppression, even in views containing slow through-plane flow. In vivo results indicate that this technique improves endocardial border definition during systole in real-time cardiac wall-motion studies. Phantom and ani-mal results indicate that this technique nearly eliminates flow artifacts in real-time intravascular studies. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2001;13:807–812. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc. Index terms: MRI; black-blood contrast; real-time imaging; pulse sequences IN REAL-TIME IMAGING, the visualization of cardia