Dual-contrast single breath-hold 3D abdominal MR imaging.
OBJECTIVE
Multiple contrasts are often helpful for a comprehensive diagnosis. In 3D abdominal MRI, breath-hold techniques are preferred for single contrast acquisitions to avoid respiratory artifacts. In this paper, highly accelerated parallel MRI is used to acquire large 3D abdominal volumes with two different contrasts within a single breath-hold.


METHODS
In vivo studies have been performed on six healthy volunteers, combining T (1)- and T (2)-weighted, gradient- or spin-echo based scans, as well as water/fat resolved imaging in a single breath-hold. These 3D scans were acquired with an acceleration factor of six, using a prototype 32-element receive array.


RESULTS
The presented approach was tested successfully on all volunteers. The whole liver area was covered by a FOV of 350 x 250 x 200 mm(3) for all scans with reasonable spatial resolution. Arbitrary scan protocols generating different contrasts have been shown to be combinable in this single breath-hold approach. Good spatial correspondence with negligible spatial offset was achieved for all different scan combinations acquired in overall breath-hold times between 15 and 25 s.


CONCLUSIONS
Enabled by highly parallel imaging technology, this study demonstrates the technical feasibility and the promising image quality of single breath-hold dual contrast MRI.
Winkelmann
Richard
R
Institute of Biomedical Engineering, University of Karlsruhe, 76128, Karlsruhe, Germany. Richard.Winkelmann@ibt.uni-karlsruhe.de
Börnert
Peter
P
De Becker
Jan
J
Hoogeveen
Romhild
R
Mazurkewitz
Peter
P
Dössel
Olaf
O
D000005:Abdomen / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D003287:Contrast Media; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008099:Liver / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D015656:Respiratory Mechanics
D003287:Contrast Media