Quick water-selective excitation of fast relaxing tissues with 3D UTE sequences.

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to implement a time effective 1-1 double pulse water-selective excitation (WE) into a three-dimensional ultrashort echo time (UTE) sequence (WE-UTE) for visualization of short-T2 tissues with positive contrast and sufficient suppression of surrounding fat. METHODS: First, an analytical description of magnetization components in the steady state applying WE-UTE was derived and results were compared with numerical simulations based on Bloch's equations. Parameters were optimized for best positive contrast between short-T2 tissues and fat under consideration of variable relaxation properties over a broad range. Maximal signal yield and signal efficiency of on-resonant protons were compared with UTE sequences with and without off-resonance fat saturation (FatSat). WE-UTE was exemplarily applied for in-vivo musculoskeletal imaging on a 3T whole-body MR unit. RESULTS: Steady state magnetization of WE-UTE could be described analytically and showed excellent accordance with numerical simulations. Even for tissues with T2 = 1 ms WE-UTE resulted in 79% of maximal signal yield of UTE without FatSat and was more efficient regarding signal yield if compared with UTE with FatSat. Using WE-UTE in-vivo tendons and ligaments could be well delineated with positive contrast to surrounding fat. CONCLUSION: WE-UTE provides a quick method for visualizing short-T2 tissues with positive contrast.