Simultaneous Variable-Slab Dual-Echo TOF MR Angiography and Susceptibility-Weighted Imaging

Abstract

Multi-slab time of flight MR angiogram (TOF MRA) provides more detailed vascular structure than single-slab MRA, whereas single-slab susceptibility weighed imaging (SWI) provides better SNR than multi-slab SWI. In previous CODEA study, conflicting requirement on number of slab was not solved. In this study, we proposed and demonstrated an efficient method to acquire TOF MRA and SWI simultaneously with different number of slabs using variable-slab CODEA, which suppressed slab boundary artifacts in TOF MRA. Also demonstrated was acceleration of the variable-slab CODEA with a parallel imaging technique, GRAPPA. These improvements would provide more diverse clinical information in a limited scan time.