Magnetic resonance in medicine : official journal of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
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To (a) develop a preconditioned water-fat total field inversion (wfTFI) algorithm that directly estimates the susceptibility map from complex multi-echo gradient echo data for water-fat regions and to (b) evaluate the performance of the proposed wfTFI quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) method in comparison with a local field inversion (LFI) method and a linear total field inversion (TFI) method in the spine. ⋯ The proposed wfTFI method can minimize BFR artifacts, noise amplification, and streaking artifacts in water-fat regions and can thus better differentiate between osteoblastic and osteolytic changes in patients with metastatic disease compared to LFI and the original TFI method.
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To implement a novel, accelerated, 2D radial echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (REPSI) sequence using undersampled radial k-space trajectories and compressed-sensing reconstruction, and to compare results with those from an undersampled Cartesian spectroscopic sequence. ⋯ Accelerated MRSI using undersampled radial echo-planar acquisitions provides greater reconstruction accuracy and more reliable quantitation for a range of acceleration factors compared with time-equivalent compressed-sensing reconstructions of undersampled Cartesian EPSI. Compared to the Cartesian approach, radial undersampling with compressed sensing could help reduce 2D spectroscopic imaging acquisition time, and offers a better trade-off between imaging speed and quality.
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Spin-echo (SE) functional MRI (fMRI) can be highly advantageous compared to gradient-echo (GE) fMRI with respect to magnetic field-inhomogeneity artifacts. However, at 3T, the majority of blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) fMRI experiments are performed using T 2 ∗ -weighted GE sequences because of their superior sensitivity compared to SE-fMRI. The presented SE implementation of a highly accelerated GE pulse sequence therefore aims to improve the sensitivity of SE-fMRI while profiting from a reduction of susceptibility-induced signal dropout. ⋯ SE-MREG offers a viable possibility for whole-brain fMRI with consideration of brain regions that are affected by strong susceptibility-induced magnetic field gradients.
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To develop a novel MR-fingerprinting (MRF) pulse sequence that is insensitive to B 1 + and B0 imperfections for simultaneous T1 , T2 , and T1ρ relaxation mapping. ⋯ The proposed TB-SL MRF sequence is fast and insensitive to B 1 + and B0 imperfections. It can simultaneously map T1 , T2 , T1ρ , and B 1 + in a single scan and can potentially be used to study muscle composition.