Accelerated 2-Minute Multi-Echo UTE MRI for Simultaneous CT-Like Bone Imaging and Quantitative Short-T2* Mapping
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Purpose
To determine the feasibility of a 2-minute multi-echo UTE (mecho-UTE) for CT-like bone-weighted contrast and T2* quantification of tissues with short T2/T2*.
Methods
Mecho-UTE data acquired from four patients and five healthy subjects were used to assess image quality of the CT-like contrast. All data were reconstructed using conventional gridding (GRID+CONV) and compared with those reconstructed using conjugate gradient SENSE combined with deep learning-based denoising (CG+DLR). Image resolution and sharpness of the CT-like images were assessed using the full width at half maximum (FWHM) and relative edge sharpness (RESH), respectively. Calimetrix UTE-T2* phantom was used to assess the accuracy of T2* quantification of the mecho-UTE sequence.
Results
Two-minute mecho-UTE with CG+DLR has similar accuracy (0.37 ± 0.27 vs. 0.67 ± 0.54 ms, p=0.20) and better precision (0.28 ± 0.16 vs. 1.23 ± 0.29 ms, p<0.001) compared to the 5-minute mecho-UTE with GRID+CONV. The 2-minute mecho-UTE with CG+DLR has higher resolution and sharpness compared to the 5-minute scan with GRID+CONV.
Conclusion
It is feasible to achieve simultaneous CT-like contrast and T2* quantification of short-T2 tissues in two minutes. When appropriately used, it may simplify logistics, reduce costs, and eliminate radiation exposure risks.
