Improving MRI scans for congenital heart disease

Gadolinium-free multi-contrast 3D whole-heart MRI for improved management of patients with congenital heart disease

MRI scans are used to diagnose and plan treatments for children with congenital heart defects, and follow the heart’s development and function over time. Unfortunately, MRI scans can be uncomfortable. People usually need to have an injection of a ‘contrast’ which helps to show detail of their heart more clearly. They also need to stay still within the scanner for a long time, holding their breath when an image is taken. Children may have to be sedated. Dr Prieto’s team recently developed a new MRI scan that avoids the need for the contrast injection. It also has a more predictable scan time because it can correct for tiny movements made by the patient. However, at the moment, the scan still takes a long time. In this project, they hope to reduce the scan time to about six minutes using a technique called ‘undersampling’. This means taking fewer images one after the other during the scan, and instead taking multiple images at the same time over shorter time periods. If successful, it will generate accurate images of the heart, faster. They also hope to develop the technology so that it scans the heart as it contracts and relaxes, which will provide further information to improve the accuracy of diagnosis. Finally, they will compare the new MRI scans with the older method, to see if their method could improve the care of people with congenital heart disease.