Physics Just the Basics Series #07 - LGE Methods and Principles-Video

Video Transcription

Video Summary

The webinar covered the principles and methods of late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) imaging in cardiac MRI. Dr. Peter Kelman explained how gadolinium, an extracellular contrast agent, accumulates differently in normal myocardium, infarcted tissue, and scar because of differing wash-in and washout kinetics. This creates T1-weighted contrast, most commonly achieved with inversion recovery or phase-sensitive inversion recovery (PSIR).  <br /><br />He discussed how to choose inversion time, why PSIR is less sensitive to exact TI than magnitude imaging, and how TI scouts or T1 mapping help optimize imaging. The talk also reviewed standard segmented breath-held LGE, single-shot free-breathing methods, and motion-corrected averaging to improve image quality and reduce artifacts from breathing or arrhythmia.  <br /><br />Additional topics included early LGE for detecting microvascular obstruction and thrombus, dark-blood LGE to improve scar-to-blood contrast, fat-water separated imaging to distinguish scar from fat or lipomatous metaplasia, and wideband sequences for patients with pacemakers or ICDs to reduce device-related artifacts.  <br /><br />The session concluded with a Q&A on practical issues such as amyloidosis, device imaging, low-field MRI, and imaging the left atrial wall.

Keywords

late gadolinium enhancement

cardiac MRI

inversion recovery

phase-sensitive inversion recovery

T1 mapping

microvascular obstruction

dark-blood LGE

wideband sequences

pacemaker artifacts