SMASH, SENSE, PILS, GRAPPA: how to choose the optimal method

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Radiology
• Biophysics

Background:

• Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has evolved significantly over 20 years, reducing acquisition times from hours to minutes or seconds.
• Advancements in hardware and fast imaging techniques have established MRI as a crucial tool in clinical diagnosis.
• Parallel MRI (pMRI) represents a major breakthrough in accelerating MRI acquisition speeds.

Purpose of the Study:

• To provide an overview of parallel MRI (pMRI) methods.
• To discuss the advantages and disadvantages of current pMRI techniques in clinical settings.
• To illustrate the application of pMRI in daily clinical practice.

Main Methods:

• Review of parallel imaging methods developed over the last 10 years.
• Analysis of different pMRI reconstruction philosophies and their impact.
• Examination of commercial availability and clinical integration of pMRI techniques.

Main Results:

• pMRI enables significant scan time reduction across various MRI sequences without compromising contrast or requiring enhanced gradient performance.
• Faster image acquisition through pMRI can lead to substantial improvements in image quality in certain clinical scenarios.
• Diverse pMRI reconstruction methods exist, each with unique strengths and weaknesses affecting image reconstruction efficacy.

Conclusions:

• Parallel MRI (pMRI) is now widely available and offers substantial benefits for clinical magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
• The choice of pMRI reconstruction method impacts clinical utility and image quality.
• pMRI enhances diagnostic capabilities through faster scans and improved image quality in diverse clinical applications.