MyoFold: Joint myocardial tissue composition and wall motion quantification via a highly folded sequence

Abstract Purpose This study aims to develop and evaluate a novel cardiovascular MR sequence, MyoFold, designed for the simultaneous quantifications of myocardial tissue composition and wall motion. Methods MyoFold is designed as a 2D single breathing‐holding sequence, integrating joint T 1 /T 2 mapping and cine imaging. The sequence uses a 2‐fold accelerated balanced SSFP (bSSFP) for data readout and incorporates electrocardiogram synchronization to align with the cardiac cycle. MyoFold initially acquires six single‐shot inversion‐recovery images, completed during the diastole of six successive heartbeats. T 2 preparation (T 2 ‐prep) is applied to introduce T 2 weightings for the last three images. Subsequently, over the following six heartbeats, segmented bSSFP is performed for the movie of the entire cardiac cycle, synchronized with an electrocardiogram. A neural network trained using numerical simulations of MyoFold is used for T 1 and T 2 calculations. MyoFold was validated through phantom and in vivo experiments, with comparisons made against MOLLI, SASHA, T 2 ‐prep bSSFP, and the conventional cine. Results In phantom studies, MyoFold exhibited a 10% overestimation in T 1 measurements, whereas T 2 measurements demonstrated high accuracy. In vivo experiments revealed that MyoFold T 1 had comparable accuracy to SASHA and precision similar to MOLLI. MyoFold demonstrated good agreement with T 2 ‐prep bSSFP in myocardial T 2 measurements. No significant differences were observed in the quantification of left‐ventricle wall thickness and function between MyoFold and the conventional cine. Conclusion MyoFold presents as a rapid, simple, and multitasking approach for quantitative cardiovascular MR examinations, offering simultaneous assessment of tissue composition and wall motion. The sequence's multitasking capabilities make it a promising tool for comprehensive cardiac evaluations in clinical settings.