• Hiroshi Sugimura, Kenichiro Yamaguchi, Eiji Furukoji, Shozo Tamura, Tatefumi Sakae, Haruyuki Koga, Yoshio Machida, and Shinichi Kitane.
• Department of Radiology, Miyazaki Medical College, University of Miyazaki, Kiyotake, Miyazaki, Japan. hsugi@med.miyazaki-u.ac.jp
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2004 Mar 1; 19 (3): 349-55.

PurposeTo evaluate the usefulness of the three-dimensional half-Fourier RARE sequence in comparison with single-shot two-dimensional half-Fourier RARE and conventional fast spin echo (FSE) for female pelvic imaging.Materials And MethodsImaging with all sequences was performed in 146 patients with 166 focal lesions on a 1.5-T system. The images were compared on the basis of quality, lesion conspicuity, and lesion to the uterus contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR).ResultsThe sharpness of intrapelvic organs on the three-dimensional half-Fourier RARE sequence was better than that on two-dimensional half-Fourier RARE and worse than that on FSE. Motion-related artifacts for three-dimensional half-Fourier RARE were more frequent than those for two-dimensional half-Fourier RARE. There was no statistical difference between the three-dimensional half-Fourier RARE sequence and FSE in regard to lesion conspicuity and overall image quality. The CNR of leiomyoma to myometrium and cervical cancer to cervical stroma was the highest with three-dimensional half-Fourier RARE (P< 0.05).ConclusionThe three-dimensional half-Fourier RARE sequence generates images with higher contrast and better image resolution than two-dimensional-RARE. The three-dimensional data set provided images that can be observed in any orientation without acquiring an additional scan by using the multiplanar reconstruction (MPR) method.Copyright 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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