Novel radial MRI methods for abdominal imaging

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The main goal of the proposed project is to develop novel radial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods for body imaging to improve diagnosis and reduce imaging time. The proposed methods are based in novel acquisition strategies of radial data and a novel post-processing algorithm used to obtain images with different signal weighting from a single k-space data set. Preliminary results show that significant improvements in abdominal imaging can be achieved with a T2-weighted radial fast-spin echo (RAD-FSE) method compared to conventional 2DFT MRI. RAD-FSE provides motion insensitivity comparable to 2DFT single-shot methods, without compromising spatial resolution. Moreover, the detection of small neoplasms (0.5-1 cm3) with RAD-FSE is significantly improved. A unique feature of the technique is that characterization of benign and malignant lesions can be done from T2 maps obtained from a single RAD-FSE k-space data set via post-processing. Thus the combined use of radial acquisition and post-processing methods can significantly improve lesion detection and lesion characterization as well as reduce imaging time. The specific aims of the proposed work are: (1) to further develop radial MRI methods to improve the time efficiency of the technique while preserving image quality; (2) to develop and evaluate alternative post-processing methods to improve characterization of small lesions; (3) to validate the acquisition and post-processing strategies proposed in Aims 1 and 2 in a clinical study at a magnetic field of 1.5 T; (4) to develop and evaluate radial methods at a magnetic field of 3.0 T. The overall goal is to develop the acquisition and post-processing methods and then to show that these lead to improve detection and characterization of neoplasms.