Simultaneous T1 and T2 mapping of the carotid plaque (SIMPLE) with T2 and inversion recovery prepared 3D radial imaging.

ABSTRACT: PURPOSE:To propose a technique that can produce different T1 and T2 contrasts in a single scan for simultaneous T1 and T2 mapping of the carotid plaque (SIMPLE). METHODS:An interleaved 3D golden angle radial trajectory was used in conjunction with T2 preparation with variable duration (TEprep ) and inversion recovery pulses. Sliding window reconstruction was adopted to reconstruct images at different inversion delay time and TEprep for joint T1 and T2 fitting. In the fitting procedure, a rapid B1 correction method was presented. The accuracy of SIMPLE was investigated in phantom experiments. In vivo scans were performed on 5 healthy volunteers with 2 scans each, and on 5 patients with carotid atherosclerosis. RESULTS:The phantom T1 and T2 estimations of SIMPLE agreed well with the standard methods with the percentage difference smaller than 7.1%. In vivo T1 and T2 for normal carotid vessel wall were 1213 ± 48.3 ms and 51.1 ± 1.7 ms, with good interscan repeatability. Alternations of T1 and T2 in plaque regions were in agreement with the conventional multicontrast imaging findings. CONCLUSION:The proposed SIMPLE allows simultaneous T1 and T2 mapping of the carotid artery in less than 10 minutes, serving as a quantitative tool with good accuracy and reproducibility for plaque characterization.

SUBMITTER: Qi H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6252279 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature