Clinical validation of free breathing Respiratory Triggered Retrospectively Cardiac Gated Cine Steady-State Free Precession (RT-SSFP) imaging in sedated children

Background Cine steady-state free precession (SSFP) is the preferred sequence for ventricular function evaluation. However, SSFP demands uninterrupted RF excitation to maintain steady-state (SS) during suspended respiration. This is feasible in adults who can perform breath-holding (BH), but is difficult to accomplish in sedated or uncooperative children. To overcome this, many pediatric groups routinely perform multi-NSA acquisitions (MN) during free breathing. In this work, we validate a respiratory triggered (RT) SSFP sequence that drives the magnetization to steady-state before commencing cardiac gated cine acquisition in sedated pediatric population.