NMR in biomedicine
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The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a double delay alternating with nutation for tailored excitation (D-DANTE)-prepared sequence for banding-free isotropic high-resolution intracranial vessel wall imaging (IC-VWI) and to compare its performance with regular DANTE in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as well as cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and blood suppression efficiency. To this end, a D-DANTE-prepared 3D turbo spin echo sequence was implemented by interleaving two separate DANTE pulse trains with different RF phase-cycling schemes, but keeping all other DANTE parameters unchanged, including the total number of pulses and total preparation time. This achieved a reduction of the banding distance compared with regular DANTE enabling banding-free imaging up to higher resolutions. ⋯ Moreover, application was demonstrated in a patient with an intracranial aneurysm, indicating improved robustness to slow flow artifacts compared with clinically available 3D turbo spin echo scans. In conclusion, D-DANTE provides banding artifact-free IC-VWI up to higher isotropic resolutions compared with regular DANTE. This allows for a more flexible choice of DANTE preparation parameters in high-resolution IC-VWI protocols.