SHILO, a novel dual imaging approach for simultaneous HI-/LOw temporal (Low-/Hi-spatial) resolution imaging for vascular dynamic contrast enhanced cardiovascular magnetic resonance: numerical simulations and feasibility in the carotid arteries

Background Dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) is increasingly used to quantify microvessels and permeability in atherosclerosis. Accurate quantification depends on reliable sampling of both vessel wall (VW) uptake and contrast agent dynamic in the blood plasma (the so called arterial input function, AIF). This poses specific challenges in terms of spatial/temporal resolution and matched dynamic MR signal range, which are suboptimal in current vascular DCE-CMR protocols. In this study we describe a novel dual-imaging approach, which allows acquiring simultaneously AIF and VW images using different spatial/temporal resolution and optimizes imaging parameters for the two compartments. We refer to this new acquisition as SHILO, Simultaneous HI-/LOw-temporal (low-/hi-spatial) resolution DCE-imaging.