Improving MRI's slice selectivity in the presence of strong, metal-derived inhomogeneities.

PURPOSE: To develop schemes that deliver faithful 2D slices near field heterogeneities of the kind arising from non-ferromagnetic metal implants, with reduced artifacts and shorter scan times. METHODS: An excitation scheme relying on cross-term spatio-temporal encoding (xSPEN) was used as basis for developing the new inhomogeneity-insensitive, slice-selective pulse scheme. The resulting Fully refOCUSED cross-term SPatiotemporal ENcoding (FOCUSED-xSPEN) approach involved four adiabatic sweeps. The method was evaluated in silico, in vitro and in vivo using mice models, and compared against a number of existing and of novel alternatives based on both conventional and swept RF pulses, including an analogous method based on LASER's selectivity spatial selectivity. RESULTS: Calculations and experiments confirmed that multi-sweep derivatives of xSPEN and LASER can deliver localized excitation profiles, centered at the intended positions and endowed with enhanced immunity to B0 and B1 distortions. This, however, is achieved at the expense of higher SAR than non-swept counterparts. Furthermore, single-shot FOCUSED-xSPEN and LASER profiles covered limited off-resonance ranges. This could be extended to bands covering arbitrary off-resonance values with uniform slice widths, by looping the experiments over a number of scans possessing suitable transmission and reception offsets. CONCLUSIONS: A series of novel approaches were introduced to select slices near metals, delivering robustness against Bo and B1+ field inhomogeneities.

Enhanced hyperpolarized chemical shift imaging based on a priori segmented information.

PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to develop an approach for improving the resolution and sensitivity of hyperpolarized 13 C MRSI based on a priori anatomical information derived from featured, water-based 1 H images. METHODS: A reconstruction algorithm exploiting 1 H MRI for the redefinition of the 13 C MRSI anatomies was developed, based on a modification of the spectroscopy with linear algebraic modeling (SLAM) principle. To enhance 13 C spatial resolution and reduce spillover effects without compromising SNR, this model was extended by endowing it with a search allowing smooth variations in the 13 C MR intensity within the targeted regions of interest. RESULTS: Experiments were performed in vitro on enzymatic solutions and in vivo on rodents, based on the administration of 13 C-enriched hyperpolarized pyruvate and urea. The spectral images reconstructed for these substrates and from metabolic products based on predefined 1 H anatomical compartments using the new algorithm, compared favorably with those arising from conventional Fourier-based analyses of the same data. The new approach also delivered reliable kinetic 13 C results, for the kind of processes and timescales usually targeted by hyperpolarized MRSI. CONCLUSION: A simple, flexible strategy is introduced to boost the sensitivity and resolution provided by hyperpolarized 13 C MRSI, based on readily available 1 H MR information.

Sculpting 3D spatial selectivity with pairs of 2D pulses: A comparison of methods.

Enhancing the specificity of the spins' excitation can improve the capabilities of magnetic resonance. Exciting voxels with tailored 3D shapes reduces partial volume effects and enhances contrast, particularly in cases where cubic voxels or other simple geometries do not provide an optimal localization. Spatial excitation profiles of arbitrary shapes can be implemented using so-called multidimensional RF pulses, which are often limited in practice to 2D implementations owing to their sensitivity to field inhomogeneities. Recent work has shown the potential of spatio-temporally encoded (SPEN) pulses towards alleviating these constraints. In particular, 2D pulses operating in a so-called hybrid scheme where the "low-bandwidth" spatial dimension is sculpted by a SPEN strategy while an orthogonal axis is shaped by regular k-space encoding, have been shown resilient to chemical shift and B0 field inhomogeneities. In this work we explore the use of pairs of 2D pulses, with one of these addressing geometries in the x-y plane and the other in the x-z dimension, to sculpt complex 3D volumes in phantoms and in vivo. To overcome limitations caused by the RF discretization demanded by these 2D pulses, a number of "unfolding" techniques yielding images from the centerband RF excitation while deleting sideband contributions - even in cases where center- and side-bands severely overlap - were developed. Thus it was possible to increase the gradient strengths applied along the low bandwidth dimensions, significantly improving the robustness of this kind of 3D sculpting pulses. Comparisons against conventional pulses designed on the basis of pure k-space trajectories, are presented.