Improving the Magnetic Resonance Characterization of Cardiac Infarct Heterogeneity with Non-Cartesian Gradients

Sudden cardiac death is among the global leading causes of death and is most often caused by ventricular tachycardia where areas of heterogeneous infarct can decouple the cardiac cycle from its natural rhythm. Treatment for ventricular tachycardia can involve catheter ablation procedures which may be made more effective by obtaining high resolution scar maps via cardiac MRI. Currently, Cartesian imaging is the standard for cardiac MRI but the resolution and coverage obtainable using Cartesian techniques is limited by long acquisition times. This thesis addresses the use of non-Cartesian k-space trajectories which reduce scan times while increasing coverage and resolution. First, the efficiency benefits of non-Cartesian sequences are explored. Then, non-Cartesian images are presented and the image quality is validated against standard Cartesian images. The thesis ends with a discussion of how non-Cartesian trajectories can be further applied in different ways to improve the state of cardiac scar mapping with MRI.M.Sc