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Balanced alternating steady‐state elastography
Author(s) -
Bieri O.,
Maderwald S.,
Ladd M.E.,
Scheffler K.
Publication year - 2006
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.20812
Subject(s) - precession , steady state free precession imaging , steady state (chemistry) , elastography , sensitivity (control systems) , magnetic resonance elastography , nuclear magnetic resonance , phase (matter) , transverse plane , sequence (biology) , physics , materials science , acoustics , biomedical engineering , chemistry , ultrasound , magnetic resonance imaging , electronic engineering , condensed matter physics , medicine , biochemistry , quantum mechanics , engineering , radiology , structural engineering
A conventional balanced steady‐state free precession (b‐SSFP) sequence scheme was modified such that the dynamic equilibrium becomes very sensitive to small cyclic displacements, generating two distinct and alternating steady states. This novel technique is proposed for the visualization of propagating transverse acoustic shear waves, as used in MR elastography (MRE) to determine the mechanical properties of materials or in vivo soft tissue. Experiments with tissue‐like agarose gel phantoms and simulations demonstrate that the novel sequence offers an increase in phase sensitivity by about one order in magnitude compared to standard motion‐encoding methods. In addition, the new method benefits from the very short acquisition times achieved by b‐SSFP protocols. Magn Reson Med, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.