Steady state free precession magnetization transfer imaging |
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| Authors: | Oliver Bieri Tallas C. Mamisch Siegfried Trattnig Klaus Scheffler |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Radiological Physics, Department of Medical Radiology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland;2. Orthopedic Surgery Department, Inselspital, Bern, Switzerland;3. MR Center, Department of Radiology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria |
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| Abstract: | The formerly proposed concept for magnetization transfer imaging (MTI) using balanced steady‐state free precession (SSFP) image acquisitions is in this work extended to nonbalanced protocols. This allows SSFP‐based MTI of targets with high susceptibility variation (such as the musculoskeletal system), or at ultra‐high magnetic fields (where balanced SSFP suffers from considerable off‐resonance related image degradations). In the first part, SSFP‐based MTI in human brain is analyzed based on magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) histograms. High correlations are observed among all different SSFP MTI protocols and thereby ensure proper conceptual extension to nonbalanced SSFP. The second part demonstrates SSFP‐based MTI allowing fast acquisition of high resolution volumetric MTR data from human brain and cartilage at low (1.5T) to ultra‐high (7.0T) magnetic fields. Magn Reson Med 60:1261–1266, 2008. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc. |
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| Keywords: | steady state SSFP magnetization transfer MT MTR |
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