Modified PROPELLER approach for T2-mapping of the abdomen

Quantitative abdominal T(2) measurements may be useful for lesion differentiation and functional tissue characterization. However, T(2) mapping of the abdomen with conventional spin-echo (SE) and turbo-spin-echo (TSE) approaches can be challenging due to physiologic motion artifacts. Multishot TSE-based PROPELLER (Periodically Rotated Overlapping ParallEL Lines with Enhanced Reconstruction) can provide superior image quality due to reduced sensitivity to motion artifacts. With echo-reordering to accurately estimate effective echo times and an extended slice thickness ratio to reduce stimulated echo effects, a modified PROPELLER approach may permit accurate, robust abdominal T(2) measurements. We validated the accuracy of our modified PROPELLER T(2)-mapping approach by comparison to conventional SE measurements in a phantom model and demonstrated the feasibility of acquiring accurate, high-quality abdominal T(2) maps in normal volunteers.