A comparison of fast MRI of hips with and without parallel imaging using SENSE

This study was undertaken to qualitatively and quantitatively compare fast MRI of hips with and without parallel imaging using SENSE (sensitivity encoding). 27 patients underwent MRI of the hips with coronal T1 turbo spin echo (TSE) (repetition time (TR) 500 ms, effective echo time (TEeff) 15 ms, Turbo Factor 4), coronal IR-TSE (TR 2000 ms, TEeff 30 ms, inversion time (TI) 160 ms, Turbo Factor 20) and axial T2 TSE (TR 3000 ms, TEeff 80 ms, Turbo Factor 20) weighted images acquired with and without SENSE with a reduction factor of 2. Conventional imaging was performed in 8 min and 36 s. Images acquired with SENSE were acquired in 5 min and 31 s without a discernible reduction in image quality or a significant quantitative reduction in image signal to noise ratio, contrast to noise ratio or edge enhancement.