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B1 and T1 mapping of the breast with a reference tissue method
Federico D Pineda1, Milica Medved1, Xiaobing Fan1
1Department of Radiology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
|May 28, 2015
Summary
This study developed a method to map the B1 field in the breast using fat as a reference tissue. This technique accurately corrects variable flip angle (VFA) data, significantly improving T1 mapping accuracy.
Area of Science:
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
- Quantitative Imaging
- Biomedical Engineering
Background:
- Accurate B1 field mapping is crucial for quantitative MRI, particularly for T1 mapping.
- Inaccurate B1 fields can lead to significant errors in T1 measurements using techniques like Variable Flip Angle (VFA).
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate a novel method for generating a complete B1 field map in the breast.
- To utilize a reference tissue with a known T1 for accurate B1 field correction.
Main Methods:
- Calculated flip angle correction factors using a "gold standard" T1 reference region (fat) with known T1 values.
- Interpolated a partial B1 map to cover the entire region of interest.
- Validated the method by comparing T1 mapping results with and without B1 correction against inversion recovery (IR) T1 maps.
Main Results:
- Linear inverse distance weighted interpolation successfully recovered the full B1 map from phantom data.
- In vivo application of the interpolated B1 map reduced the average T1 difference between VFA and IR methods from 58% to 8% in breast parenchyma.
Conclusions:
- This proof-of-principle study demonstrates the feasibility of creating accurate B1 field maps in the breast.
- Using fat as a reference tissue enables precise B1 field correction, enhancing the accuracy of VFA-based T1 mapping.
