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High‐Field MR microscopy using fast spin‐echoes
Author(s) -
Zhou Xiaohong,
Cofer Gary P.,
Suddarth Steve A.,
Allan Johnson G.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
magnetic resonance in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.696
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1522-2594
pISSN - 0740-3194
DOI - 10.1002/mrm.1910300110
Subject(s) - pulse sequence , voxel , isotropy , nuclear magnetic resonance , spin echo , physics , k space , amplitude , undersampling , optics , phase (matter) , pulse (music) , offset (computer science) , materials science , microscopy , resolution (logic) , magnetic resonance imaging , fourier transform , computer science , artificial intelligence , medicine , quantum mechanics , detector , radiology , programming language
Abstract Fast spin‐echo imaging has been investigated with attention to the requirements and opportunities for high‐field MR microscopy. Two‐and three‐dimensional versions were implemented at 2.0 T, 7.1 T, and 9.4 T. At these fields, at least eight echoes were collectable with a 10 ms TE from fixed tissue specimens and living animals, giving an eightfold improvement in imaging efficiency. To reduce the phase‐encoding gradient amplitude and its duty cycle, a modified pulse sequence with phase accumulation was developed. Images obtained using this pulse sequence exhibited comparable signal‐to‐noise (SNR) to those obtained from the conventional fast spin‐echo pulse sequences. Signal losses due to imperfections in RF pulses and lack of phase rewinders were offset in this sequence by reduced diffusion losses incurred with the gradients required for MR microscopy. Image SNR, contrast, edge effects and spatial resolution for three k ‐space sampling schemes were studied experimentally and theoretically. One method of sampling k ‐space, 4‐GROUP FSE, was found particularly useful in producing varied T 2 contrast at high field. Two‐dimensional images of tissue specimens were obtained in a total acquisition time of 1 to 2 min with in‐plane resolution between 30 to 70 μm, and 3D images with 256 3 arrays were acquired from fixed rat brain tissue (isotropic voxel = 70 μm) and a living rat (isotropic voxel = 117 μm) in∼4.5 h.