• Hongfu Sun, Jon O Cleary, Rebecca Glarin, Scott C Kolbe, Roger J Ordidge, Bradford A Moffat, and G Bruce Pike.
• School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
• Magn Reson Med. 2020 Apr 1; 83 (4): 1178-1191.

PurposeTo demonstrate simultaneous T1 -weighted imaging, T1 mapping, R 2 ∗ mapping, SWI, and QSM from a single multi-echo (ME) MP2RAGE acquisition.MethodsA single-echo (SE) MP2RAGE sequence at 7 tesla was extended to ME with 4 bipolar gradient echo readouts. T1 -weighted images and T1 maps calculated from individual echoes were combined using sum of squares and averaged, respectively. ME-combined SWI and associated minimum intensity projection images were generated with TE-adjusted homodyne filters. A QSM reconstruction pipeline was used, including a phase-offsets correction and coil combination method to properly combine the phase images from the 32 receiver channels. Measurements of susceptibility, R 2 ∗ , and T1 of brain tissue from ME-MP2RAGE were compared with those from standard ME-gradient echo and SE-MP2RAGE.ResultsThe ME combined T1 -weighted, T1 map, SWI, and minimum intensity projection images showed increased SNRs compared to the SE results. The proposed coil combination method led to QSM results free of phase-singularity artifacts, which were present in the standard adaptive combination method. T1 -weighted, T1 , and susceptibility maps from ME-MP2RAGE were comparable to those obtained from SE-MP2RAGE and ME-gradient echo, whereas R 2 ∗ maps showed increased blurring and reduced SNR. T1 , R 2 ∗ , and susceptibility values of brain tissue from ME-MP2RAGE were consistent with those from SE-MP2RAGE and ME-gradient echo.ConclusionHigh-resolution structural T1 weighted imaging, T1 mapping, R 2 ∗ mapping, SWI, and QSM can be extracted from a single 8.5-min ME-MP2RAGE acquisition using a customized reconstruction pipeline. This method can be applied to replace separate SE-MP2RAGE and ME-gradient echo acquisitions to significantly shorten total scan time.© 2019 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

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