Magnetic resonance imaging
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To implement a fast (~15min) MRI protocol for carotid plaque screening using 3D multi-contrast MRI sequences without contrast agent on a 3Tesla MRI scanner. ⋯ The proposed protocol demonstrated the feasibility of attaining carotid plaque screening within a 15-minute scan, which provided sufficient anatomical coverage and critical diagnostic information. This protocol offers the potential for rapid and reliable screening for carotid plaques without contrast agent.
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To assess whether acquisition with 32 receiver coils rather than the vendor-recommended 12 coils provides significantly improved performance in 3D dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) of the prostate. ⋯ Reconstruction of 3D accelerated DCE-MRI studies of the prostate using 32 independent receiver coils provides improved overall performance vs. using 12 coils.
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In this study, we sought to demonstrate the blood suppression performance, image quality and morphological measurements for compressed sensing (CS) based simultaneous 3D black- and gray-blood imaging sequence (CS-siBLAG) in carotid vessel wall MR imaging. ⋯ By combining the CS under-sampling pattern and reconstruction, pseudo-centric phase encoding order and dual blood contrast sequences, this technique provides spatially registered black- and gray-blood images and excellent visualization for vessel wall imaging and gray-blood imaging in a short scan time.
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Segmented cine imaging with a steady-state free-precession sequence (Cine-SSFP) is currently the gold standard technique for measuring ventricular volumes and mass, but due to multi breath-hold (BH) requirements, it is prone to misalignment of consecutive slices, time consuming and dependent on respiratory capacity. Real-time cine avoids those limitations, but poor spatial and temporal resolution of conventional sequences has prevented its routine application. We sought to examine the accuracy and feasibility of a newly developed real-time sequence with aggressive under-sampling of k-space using sparse sampling and iterative reconstruction (Cine-RT). ⋯ Cine-RT featuring sparse sampling and iterative reconstruction can achieve spatial and temporal resolution equivalent to Cine-SSFP, providing excellent image quality, with similar precision measurements and highly correlated and only slightly underestimated volume and mass values.
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To investigate the in-vivo precision and clinical feasibility of 3D-QALAS - a novel method for simultaneous three-dimensional myocardial T1- and T2-mapping. ⋯ Repeated independent and dependent scans together with the intra-scan repeatability, demonstrated all a very good precision for the 3D-QALAS method in healthy volunteers. This study shows that 3D T1 and T2 mapping in the left ventricle is feasible in one breath hold for patients with different cardiac pathologies using 3D-QALAS.