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Short T 2 imaging using a 3D double adiabatic inversion recovery prepared ultrashort echo time cones (3D DIR‐UTE‐Cones) sequence
Author(s) -
Ma YaJun,
Zhu Yanchun,
Lu Xing,
Carl Michael,
Chang Eric Y.,
Du Jiang
Publication year - 2018
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.26908
Subject(s) - adiabatic process , achilles tendon , imaging phantom , physics , nuclear magnetic resonance , gradient echo , cortical bone , materials science , tendon , nuclear medicine , anatomy , magnetic resonance imaging , optics , biology , medicine , radiology , thermodynamics
Purpose To investigate high contrast imaging of short T 2 tissues with a three‐dimensional double adiabatic inversion recovery prepared ultrashort echo time Cones (3D DIR‐UTE‐Cones) sequence. Methods The sequence used two sequential adiabatic inversion pulses to suppress signals from long T 2 tissues, followed by multispoke UTE acquisition to detect signals from short T 2 tissues. The two adiabatic inversion pulses are identical with a center frequency located at the water peak, but the spectral width is broad enough to cover both water and fat frequencies. The feasibility of this technique was demonstrated through numerical simulation and phantom studies. Finally, DIR‐UTE‐Cones was applied to three healthy volunteers to image cortical bone, patellar tendon, and Achilles tendon.T 2 *was also measured via single‐component exponential fitting. Results Numerical simulation suggests that the DIR technique provides perfect nulling of muscle and fat as well as efficient suppression of other long T 2 tissues with T 1 values between fat and water or those above water. Excellent image contrast can be achieved with DIR‐UTE‐Cones for the short T 2 tissues, with fittedT 2 *values of 0.28–0.38 ms for cortical bone, 0.56 ± 0.07 ms for the patella tendon, and 0.45 ± 0.06 ms for the Achilles tendon, respectively. Conclusion The 3D DIR‐UTE‐Cones sequence provides robust suppression of long T 2 tissues and allows selective imaging as well asT 2 *measurement of short T 2 tissues such as cortical bone, patellar tendon, and the Achilles tendon. Magn Reson Med 79:2555–2563, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.