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Updated: Jul 8, 2026

High-resolution Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Methods for Human Midbrain
Published on: May 10, 2012
MR venography of the human brain using susceptibility weighted imaging at very high field strength
Peter J Koopmans1, Rashindra Manniesing, Wiro J Niessen
1FC Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Radboud University Nijmegen, PO Box 9101, Nijmegen, 6500 HB, The Netherlands.
Objective:
We investigate the implications of high magnetic field strength on MR venography based on susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) and estimate the optimum echo time to obtain maximum contrast between blood and brain tissue.
Materials And Methods:
We measured tissue contrast and T2* relaxation times at 7 T of gray matter, white matter, and venous blood in vivo.
Results:
T2* relaxation times of gray matter, white matter, and venous blood in vivo yielded 32.9 +/- 2.3, 27.7 +/- 4.3, and 7.4 +/- 1.4 ms, respectively. Optimum TE was found to be 15 ms which is supported by theoretical considerations. Using this optimum TE, we acquired 3D high resolution datasets with a large volume coverage in a short measurement time that show very detailed microanatomical structures of the human brain such as intracortical veins and laminar cortical substructures.
Conclusions:
By applying optimised vessel filters (vesselness filter and vessel enhancing diffusion) whole brain MR venograms can be obtained at 7 T with a significantly reduced measurement time compared to 3 T.
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