• Arijitt Borthakur, Justin Hulvershorn, Eugene Gualtieri, Andrew J Wheaton, Sridhar Charagundla, Mark A Elliott, and Ravinder Reddy.
• MMRRCC, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104-6100, USA. ari@mail.mmrrcc.upenn.edu
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2006 Apr 1; 23 (4): 591-6.

PurposeTo develop a novel pulse sequence called spin-locked echo planar imaging (EPI), or (SLEPI), to perform rapid T1rho-weighted MRI.Materials And MethodsSLEPI images were used to calculate T1rho maps in two healthy volunteers imaged on a 1.5-T Sonata Siemens MRI scanner. The head and extremity coils were used for imaging the brain and blood in the popliteal artery, respectively.ResultsSLEPI-measured T1rho was 83 msec and 103 msec in white (WM) and gray matter (GM), respectively, 584 msec in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and was similar to values obtained with the less time-efficient sequence based on a turbo spin-echo readout. T1rho was 183 msec in arterial blood at a spin-lock (SL) amplitude of 500 Hz.ConclusionWe demonstrate the feasibility of the SLEPI pulse sequence to perform rapid T1rho MRI. The sequence produced images of higher quality than a gradient-echo EPI sequence for the same contrast evolution times. We also discuss applications and limitations of the pulse sequence.2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

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