title: Rapid MR elastography using selective excitations.
abstract: Rapid MR elastography (MRE) techniques using spatially-selective excitations to reduce acquisition times to a few seconds or less were devised and tested. The techniques included reduced field of view (rFOV) MRE and 1D MRE (beam MRE) using 2D spatially selective RF excitations for gradient-echo (GRE) applications and intersecting 90 degrees and 180 degrees slice-selective excitations for spin-echo (SE) applications. It was shown that scan times could be reduced by a factor of 8 using rFOV MRE, and by 64 using beam MRE, while still obtaining stiffness estimates comparable to full-FOV MRE. Results were shown in gel phantom experiments as well as in the case of a preserved postmortem breast tissue specimen with a stiff lesion. These methods can be used to more rapidly interrogate regions of interest (ROIs) in tissue to quickly obtain information about the viscoelastic properties of that tissue.
authors: Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA.
authors: Kevin J
authors: KJ
authors: Glaser
authors: Joel P
authors: JP
authors: Felmlee
authors: Richard L
authors: RL
authors: Ehman