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A Perspective on MR Fingerprinting
Author(s) -
Assländer Jakob
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.27134
Subject(s) - computer science , biometrics , artificial intelligence , terminology , flexibility (engineering) , pattern recognition (psychology) , robustness (evolution) , context (archaeology) , data mining , computer vision , mathematics , statistics , paleontology , philosophy , linguistics , biochemistry , chemistry , biology , gene
This article reviews the basic concept of MR fingerprinting (MRF) with the goal of highlighting MRF's key contributions, putting them in the context of other quantitative MRI literature, and refining MRF's terminology. The article discusses the robustness and flexibility of MRF's signature dictionary‐matching reconstruction along with more advanced MRF reconstructions. A key feature of MRF is the lack of assumptions about the signal evolution, which gives scientists the flexibility to tailor sequences for their needs. The article argues that the concept of unique fingerprints does not capture the requirements for successful parameter mapping and that an analysis of the signal's derivatives with respect to biophysical parameters, such as relaxation times, is more informative, as it allows one to evaluate the efficiency of a pulse sequence. The article points at the source of MRF's efficiency, namely, flip angle variations at the time scale of the relaxation times, and reveals that MRF's advantages are strongest at long scan times, as required for 3D imaging. Further, it outlines how MRF's flexibility can be used to design mutually tailored pulse sequences and biophysical models with the goal of improving the reproducibility of parameter mapping biological tissue. Level of Evidence 5 Technical Efficacy Stage 1