Magnetic resonance in medicine : official journal of the Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
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The purpose of this study was to develop a three-dimensional black blood imaging method for simultaneously evaluating the carotid and intracranial arterial vessel walls with high spatial resolution and excellent blood suppression with and without contrast enhancement. ⋯ DANTE-SPACE significantly improved arterial and venous blood suppression compared with SPACE. Simultaneous high-resolution carotid and intracranial vessel wall imaging to potentially identify plaque components was feasible with a scan time under 6 min. Magn Reson Med 75:2286-2294, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
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To accurately correct diffusion-encoding direction-dependent eddy-current-induced geometric distortions in diffusion-weighted echo-planar imaging (DW-EPI) and to minimize the calibration time at 7 Tesla (T). ⋯ The combination of both PSF-based approaches allows distortion-free images, which permit reliable analysis in diffusion tensor imaging applications at 7T.
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To evaluate the performance of relaxation along a fictitious field (RAFF) relaxation time (TRAFF ), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI)-derived parameters, and T2 relaxation time values for prostate cancer (PCa) detection and characterization. ⋯ In a quantitative region of interest-based analysis, RAFF outperformed DWI ("low" and "high" b values) and T2 mapping in the characterization of PCa.
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Macromolecular proton fraction (MPF) mapping is a quantitative MRI method that reconstructs parametric maps of a relative amount of macromolecular protons causing the magnetization transfer (MT) effect and provides a biomarker of myelination in neural tissues. This study aimed to develop a high-resolution whole brain MPF mapping technique using a minimal number of source images for scan time reduction. ⋯ The proposed synthetic reference method improves resolution of MPF mapping and combines accurate MPF measurements with unique neuroanatomical contrast features.
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Variable flip angle (VFA) T1 quantification using three-dimensional (3D) radiofrequency (RF) spoiled gradient echo imaging offers the acquisition of whole-brain T1 maps in clinically acceptable times. However, conventional VFA T1 relaxometry is biased by incomplete spoiling (i.e., residual T2 dependency). A new postprocessing approach is proposed to overcome this T2-related bias. ⋯ Based on a global T2 estimate, the accuracy of VFA T1 relaxometry in the human brain can substantially be improved compared with conventional approaches which rely on the generally wrong assumption of ideal spoiling.