• Dominik Paul, Michael Markl, Hans-Peter Fautz, and Jürgen Hennig.
• Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Medical Physics, University Hospital Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany. dominik.paul@uniklinik-freiburg.de
• Magn Reson Med. 2006 Jul 1; 56 (1): 82-93.

AbstractA new technique for acquiring T2-weighted, balanced steady-state free precession (b-SSFP) images is presented. Based on the recently proposed transition into driven equilibrium (TIDE) method, T2-TIDE uses a special flip angle scheme to achieve T2-weighted signal decay during the transient phase. In combination with half-Fourier image acquisition, T2-weighted images can be obtained using T2-TIDE. Numerical simulations were performed to analyze the signal behavior of T2-TIDE in comparison with TSE and b-SSFP. The results indicate identical signal evolution of T2-TIDE and TSE during the transient phase. T2-TIDE was used in phantom experiments, and quantitative ROI analysis shows a linear relationship between TSE and T2-TIDE SNR values. T2-TIDE was also applied to abdominal and head imaging on healthy volunteers. The resulting images were analyzed quantitatively and compared with standard T2-weighted and standard b-SSFP methods. T2-TIDE images clearly revealed T2 contrast and less blurring compared to T2-HASTE images. In combination with a magnetization preparation technique, STIR-weighted images were obtained. T2-TIDE is a robust technique for acquiring T2-weighted images while exploiting the advantages of b-SSFP imaging, such as high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and short TRs.Copyright (c) 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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