title: T1rho-weighted MRI using a surface coil to transmit spin-lock pulses.
abstract: T1rho-weighted MRI is a novel basis for generating tissue contrast. However, it suffers from sensitivity to B1 inhomogeneity. First, excitation with a spatially varying B1 causes flip-angle artifacts and second, spin locking with an inhomogeneous B1 results in non-uniform T1rho contrast. In this study, we overcome the former complication with a specially designed spin-locking pulse sequence and we successfully obtain T1rho-weighted images with a surface coil. In this pulse sequence, the spin-lock pulse was divided into segments of equal duration and alternating phase. This "self-compensating" T1rho-preparatory pulse sequence was analyzed and the effect of an inhomogeneous B1 field was simulated using the Bloch equations. T1rho-weighted MR images of a phantom and a human knee joint in vivo were obtained on a clinical scanner with a surface coil to demonstrate the utility of the pulse sequence. The self-compensating T1rho-prepared pulses sequence resulted in substantially reduced image artifacts compared to the conventional, single-phase spin-lock pulse.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. ari@mail.mmrrcc.upenn.edu
authors.forename: Arijitt
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Borthakur
authors.forename: Sridhar R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Charagundla
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wheaton
authors.forename: Ravinder
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Reddy
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000465:Algorithms; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008280:Magnetics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008297:Male; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D011786:Quality Control; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D014159:Transducers