Multiple repetition time balanced steady-state free precession imaging

✍ Scribed by Tolga Çukur; Dwight G. Nishimura

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 864 KB
• Volume: 62
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0740-3194
• DOI: 10.1002/mrm.21990

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Although balanced steady‐state free precession (bSSFP) imaging yields high signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) efficiency, the bright lipid signal is often undesirable. The bSSFP spectrum can be shaped to suppress the fat signal with scan‐efficient alternating repetition time (ATR) bSSFP. However, the level of suppression is limited, and the pass‐band is narrow due to its nonuniform shape. A multiple repetition time (TR) bSSFP scheme is proposed that creates a broad stop‐band with a scan efficiency comparable with ATR‐SSFP. Furthermore, the pass‐band signal uniformity is improved, resulting in fewer shading/banding artifacts. When data acquisition occurs in more than a single TR within the multiple‐TR period, the echoes can be combined to significantly improve the level of suppression. The signal characteristics of the proposed technique were compared with bSSFP and ATR‐SSFP. The multiple‐TR method generates identical contrast to bSSFP, and achieves up to an order of magnitude higher stop‐band suppression than ATR‐SSFP. In vivo studies at 1.5 T and 3 T demonstrate the superior fat‐suppression performance of multiple‐TR bSSFP. Magn Reson Med 62:193–204, 2009. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.