Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Volume 28, Issue 9 , Pages 1374-1382, November 2010

Three-dimensional T1, T2 and proton density mapping with inversion recovery balanced SSFP☆

  • Rexford D. Newbould

      Affiliations

    • GSK Clinical Imaging Centre, Hammersmith Hospital, W12 0NN London, UK
    • Corresponding Author InformationCorresponding author. Tel.: +44 02080086264; fax: +44 02080086491.
    • ,
  • Stefan T. Skare

      Affiliations

    • Lucas MRS/I Center, Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94306, USA
    • ,
  • Marcus T. Alley

      Affiliations

    • Lucas MRS/I Center, Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94306, USA
    • ,
  • Garry E. Gold

      Affiliations

    • Lucas MRS/I Center, Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94306, USA
    • ,
  • Roland Bammer

      Affiliations

    • Lucas MRS/I Center, Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94306, USA

Received 4 December 2009; received in revised form 10 February 2010; accepted 10 June 2010. published online 09 August 2010.

Abstract 

By combining a balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP) readout with an initial inversion pulse, all three contrast parameters, T1, T2 and proton density (M0), may be rapidly calculated from the signal progression in time. However, here it is shown that this technique is quite sensitive to variation in the applied transmit RF (B1) field, leading to pronounced errors in calculated values. Two-dimensional (2D) acquisitions are taxed to accurately quantify the relaxation, as the short RF pulses required by SSFP's rapid TR contain a broad spectrum of excitation angles. A 3D excitation using a large diameter excitation coil was able to correctly quantify the parameters. While the extreme B1 sensitivity was previously problematic and has precluded use of IR-bSSFP for relaxometry, in this work these obstacles were significantly reduced, allowing the rapid quantification of T1, T2 and M0. The results may further be used to simulate image contrast from common sequences, such as a T1-weighted or fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) examination.

Keywords: Relaxometry, bSSFP, Inversion recovery, TrueFISP

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☆ This work was supported in part by the NIH (1R01EB002771, 1R01EB002524), the Center of Advanced MR Technology at Stanford (P41RR09784), the Lucas Foundation and the Oak Foundation.

PII: S0730-725X(10)00161-X

doi:10.1016/j.mri.2010.06.004

Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Volume 28, Issue 9 , Pages 1374-1382, November 2010

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