Spiral 2D T2-Weighted TSE Brain MR Imaging: Initial Clinical Experience

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FIGURE.
Representative images from 3 different patients (1 patient per row). In patient 1, ghosting artifacts from bulk motion appear on Cartesian images (orange arrows) but not on MultiVane or spiral images. In patient 2, no artifacts were present and thus an excellent visualization could be achieved for all 3 sequences. In patient 3, a small focal multiple sclerosis lesion is visualized clearly on all 3 sequences (green arrow).

Table 1:

Sequence parameters

Parameter	Cartesian T2WI TSE	MultiVane T2WI TSE	Spiral T2WI TSE
Technique	2D TSE	2D TSE	2D TSE
FOV AP/FH/RL (mm)	230 × 230 × 149	230 × 230 × 149	230 × 230 × 149
Acquired voxel size (mm³)	0.7 × 0.7 × 4.0	0.7 × 0.7 × 4.0	0.7 × 0.7 × 4.0
Reconstructed voxel size (mm³)	0.45 × 0.45 × 4.0	0.45 × 0.45 × 4.0	0.45 × 0.45 × 4.0
No. of slices	30	30	30
TR (ms)	5300	5300	5300
TE equivalent (ms)	90	90	90
Flip angle	90°	90°	90°
Refocusing flip angle	180°	180°	180°
TSE factor	28	30	8
Spiral acq window	–	–	Spiral in-out, 11.4 ms
Parallel imaging	No	SENSE 1.5	No
NSA	2	1	2
Receiver bandwidth (Hz/pixel)	560	290	114
SAR (W/kg)	<1.9	<2.0	<1.6
dB/dT (T/s)	52	33	72
Acquisition time (min:sec)	04:14	02:49	02:12

Note:—NSA indicates number of signal averages; acq, acquisition; SAR, specific absorption rate; dB/dT, ratio between the amount of change in amplitude of the magnetic field (dB) and the time it takes to make that change (dt); T/s, Tesla/second; AP/FH/RL, anterior-posterior/foot-head/right-left; –, scan parameter does not exist for this sequence.

Table 2:

Detailed overview of qualitative and quantitative data

	Cartesian	MultiVane	Spiral
Overall image quality^{^a}	3; (2,3)/3; (2.5,3)/3; (3,3)	4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)	4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)
Presence of motion artifacts^{^a}	3; (2,3)/3; (2,3)/3; (3,3)	4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)	4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)
Presence of pulsation artifacts^{^a}	4; (4,4)/4; (3.5,4)/4; (4,4)	4; (3,4)/4; (3,4)/4; (3,4)	4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)
GWM differentiation^{^a}	3; (3,4)/3; (3,4)/3; (3,4)	4; (3,4)/4; (3,4)/4; (3,4)	4; (3,4)/4; (3,4)/4; (3,4)
Lesion conspicuity^{^a}	4; (3.75,4)/4; (3.75,4)/4; (3.75,4)	4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)	4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)/4; (4,4)
Subjective preference(No. of times score 1/No. of times score 2/No. of times score 3)	Reader 1: (6/22/3)Reader 2: (7/21/3)Reader 3: (8/20/3)	Reader 1: (0/5/25)Reader 2: (0/6/25)Reader 3: (0/6/25)	Reader 1: (0/5/26)Reader 2: (0/5/26)Reader 3: (0/5/26)
CV_CSF^{^b}	0.026 (0.02)	0.023 (0.019)	0.021 (0.014)
CV_GM^{^b}	0.109 (0.053)	0.096 (0.035)	0.087 (0.025)
CV_WM^{^b}	0.07 (0.027)	0.053 (0.019)	0.053 (0.02)
SNR^{^b}	13.36 (3.4)	16.1 (3.3)	16.6 (3.9)