基于油水分离的核磁共振并行温度成像及噪声分析

基于油水分离的核磁共振温度成像能够有效减少常规水质子共振频率测温法的各种误差,但成像速度受到多梯度回波序列TR时间的限制。本文使用SENSE并行成像技术对成像过程进行加速,并建立相应的噪声分析模型。同时提出逐通道重建方法解决自标定SENSE技术中的相位缺失问题,并采用CORNOL正则化方法降低高加速倍数时的温度图噪声。定性和定量数值模拟结果验证了并行温度成像方法和噪声分析模型的有效性。体模实验结果表明,若采用正则化SC-SENSE重建技术,使用4通道头部线圈时净加速倍数可达2.7倍。     

Local SAR reduction in parallel excitation based on channel-dependent Tikhonov parameters

Purpose

To reduce the local specific absorption rate (SAR) obtained with tailored pulses using parallel transmission while obtaining homogenous flip angle distributions.

Materials and Methods

Finite‐element simulations on a human head model were performed to obtain the individual magnetic and electric field maps for each channel of a parallel transmit array. From those maps, SAR calculations were carried out for “spoke” pulses designed to homogenize the flip angle in an axial slice of a human brain at 7 T. Based on the assumption that the coil element nearest to the maximum local energy deposition is the dominant contributor to the corresponding hot spot, a set of channel‐dependent Tikhonov parameters is optimized. Resulting SAR distributions are compared to the ones obtained when using standard pulse design approaches based on a single Tikhonov parameter.

Results

In both the small‐ and large‐tip‐angle domain, the simulations show local SAR reductions by over a factor of 2 (4) for a well‐centered (off‐centered) head model at the expense of roughly 1% increment in flip‐angle spread over the slice.

Conclusion

Significant SAR reductions can be obtained by optimizing channel‐dependent Tikhonov parameters based on the relation between coil elements and SAR hot spot positions. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2010;32:1209–1216. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Evaluation of multicoil breast arrays for parallel imaging

Purpose:

To evaluate three multicoil breast arrays for both conventional and SENSE‐accelerated imaging.

Materials and Methods:

Two commercially available 8‐element coils and a prototype 16‐element coil were compared. One 8‐element array had adjustable coils located next to the breast tissue and the other had a fixed coil arrangement; both were designed to allow parallel imaging in the left–right direction. The 16‐element coil was designed to have coil sensitivity variation in both the left–right and superior–inferior directions, and also had adjustable coils. Their performance was assessed in terms of signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR), g‐factor, and uniformity with a custom‐built phantom.

Results:

The 16‐element array with adjustable coils provided the highest SNR, while the 8‐element coil with a fixed coil arrangement had the best uniformity. All coils performed well for SENSE acceleration in the left–right direction. The 8‐element coils did not have the capability for acceleration in the superior–inferior direction across the whole volume. The 16‐element coil enabled acceleration in the superior–inferior direction in addition to the left–right direction.

Conclusion:

Smaller, adjustable coil elements located next to breast tissue can provide greater SNR than larger, fixed coil elements. A multicoil breast array with high intrinsic SNR and low g‐factors enables high‐quality parallel imaging. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2010; 31: 328–338. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Accelerated volumetric MRI with a SENSE/GRAPPA combination

PURPOSE: To combine the specific advantages of the generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisitions (GRAPPA) technique and sensitivity encoding (SENSE) with two-dimensional (2D) undersampling. MATERIALS AND METHODS: By splitting the 2D reconstruction process into multiple one-dimensional (1D) reconstructions, the normal 1D GRAPPA method can be used for image reconstruction. Due to this data-handling process, a GRAPPA reconstruction is performed along the phase-encoding (PE) direction and effectively a SENSE reconstruction is performed along the partition-encoding (PAE) direction. RESULTS: In vivo experiments demonstrate the successful implementation of the SENSE/GRAPPA combination. Experimental results with up to 9.6-fold acceleration using a prototype 32-channel receiver head coil array are presented. CONCLUSION: The proposed SENSE/GRAPPA combination for 3D imaging allows the GRAPPA method to be applied in combination with 2D undersampling. Because the SENSE/GRAPPA combination is not based on knowledge of spatial coil sensitivities, it should be the method of choice whenever it is difficult to extract the sensitivity information.     

SENSE imaging with a quadrature half-volume transverse electromagnetic (TEM) coil at 4T

PURPOSE: To demonstrate the feasibility of high-field SENSE imaging of large objects, such as the human head, using a semicircular (half-volume) coil for both transmission and multi-channel reception. MATERIALS AND METHODS: As a proof of concept, we present experimental data obtained using a seven-element half-volume (180 degrees of arc) transmit/receive quadrature transverse electromagnetic (TEM) coil. SENSE images of the human brain were acquired with a reduction factor of R=2, using two degenerate linear modes of the same coil as independent receive channels at 4T. Since the need for additional hardware (i.e., a separate set of receive coils) is eliminated, the design can be substantially simplified. RESULTS: The experimental data demonstrate that linear modes of the half-volume TEM coil have essentially no noise correlation, and their sensitivity profiles satisfy the requirement for small g-factors. Also, this type of coil provides efficient transmission with a relatively large uniform region and a reception profile that is more uniform than that of the surface coils. CONCLUSION: We demonstrate the feasibility of SENSE imaging using a half-volume coil. Half-volume coils allow reduced total power deposition compared to full-volume coils, and may replace the latter in body imaging applications in which the target region of interest (ROI) is smaller than the entire torso.     

Three‐dimensional first‐pass myocardial perfusion MRI using a stack‐of‐spirals acquisition

Three‐dimensional cardiac magnetic resonance perfusion imaging is promising for the precise sizing of defects and for providing high perfusion contrast, but remains an experimental approach primarily due to the need for large‐dimensional encoding, which, for traditional 3DFT imaging, requires either impractical acceleration factors or sacrifices in spatial resolution. We demonstrated the feasibility of rapid three‐dimensional cardiac magnetic resonance perfusion imaging using a stack‐of‐spirals acquisition accelerated by non‐Cartesian k‐t SENSE, which enables entire myocardial coverage with an in‐plane resolution of 2.4 mm. The optimal undersampling pattern was used to achieve the largest separation between true and aliased signals, which is a prerequisite for k‐t SENSE reconstruction. Flip angle and saturation recovery time were chosen to ensure negligible magnetization variation during the transient data acquisition. We compared the proposed three‐dimensional perfusion method with the standard 2DFT approach by consecutively acquiring both data during each R–R interval in cardiac patients. The mean and standard deviation of the correlation coefficients between time intensity curves of three‐dimensional versus 2DFT were 0.94 and 0.06 across seven subjects. The linear correlation between the two sets of upslope values was significant (r = 0.78, P < 0.05). Magn Reson Med, 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Highly accelerated real‐time cardiac cine MRI using k–t SPARSE‐SENSE

For patients with impaired breath‐hold capacity and/or arrhythmias, real‐time cine MRI may be more clinically useful than breath‐hold cine MRI. However, commercially available real‐time cine MRI methods using parallel imaging typically yield relatively poor spatio‐temporal resolution due to their low image acquisition speed. We sought to achieve relatively high spatial resolution (～2.5 × 2.5 mm²) and temporal resolution (～40 ms), to produce high‐quality real‐time cine MR images that could be applied clinically for wall motion assessment and measurement of left ventricular function. In this work, we present an eightfold accelerated real‐time cardiac cine MRI pulse sequence using a combination of compressed sensing and parallel imaging (k‐t SPARSE‐SENSE). Compared with reference, breath‐hold cine MRI, our eightfold accelerated real‐time cine MRI produced significantly worse qualitative grades (1–5 scale), but its image quality and temporal fidelity scores were above 3.0 (adequate) and artifacts and noise scores were below 3.0 (moderate), suggesting that acceptable diagnostic image quality can be achieved. Additionally, both eightfold accelerated real‐time cine and breath‐hold cine MRI yielded comparable left ventricular function measurements, with coefficient of variation <10% for left ventricular volumes. Our proposed eightfold accelerated real‐time cine MRI with k–t SPARSE‐SENSE is a promising modality for rapid imaging of myocardial function. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2013. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.