Development of a novel single-scan acquisition and model-based reconstruction method for fast, accurate and robust multi-parametric quantitative MRI at ultrahigh field strength

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Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (qMRI) allows a multitude of physiological MR parameters to be measured. Among those, the following parameters are considered significant as they are known to be affected by several neurological pathologies: water content, longitudinal relaxation time T1, effective transverse relaxation time T2*, magnetic susceptibility, and electric conductivity. Conventional methods which can be used to measure these parameters either suffer from long acquisition times and are sensitive to patient motion, tarnishing their clinical applicability, or are susceptible to magnetic field inhomogeneity and have a high specific absorption rate, which impairs their application at ultrahigh field strength. The aim of this project is to develop a novel qMRI method to simultaneously map the aforementioned parameters, which is designed to be fast, accurate, and motion-robust, while simultaneously being robust against magnetic field inhomogeneity and having a low specific absorption rate. This makes it both clinically applicable and also well suited for application at ultrahigh field strength. The proposed method consists of a new MR sequence and a new image reconstruction technique to produce hundreds of contrast images with 1mm isotropic resolution and full brain coverage within only 5-7 minutes of acquisition time. These images are acquired at different echo and inversion times and form the basis of the subsequent quantitative parametric mapping.