Compressed-Sensing MP2RAGE sequence: Application to the detection of brain metastases in mice at 7T

To develop a Compressed Sensing (CS)-MP2RAGE sequence to drastically shorten acquisition duration and then detect and measure the T1 of brain metastases in mice at 7 T.

The encoding trajectory of the standard Cartesian MP2RAGE sequence has been modified (1) to obtain a variable density Poisson disk under-sampling distribution along the ky -kz plane, and (2) to sample the central part of the k-space exactly at TI1 and TI2 inversion times. In a prospective study, the accuracy of the T1 measurements was evaluated on phantoms containing increasing concentrations of gadolinium. The CS acceleration factors were increased to evaluate their influence on the contrast and T1 measurements of brain metastases in vivo. Finally, the 3D T1 maps were acquired with at 4-fold increased spatial resolution. The volumes and T1 values of the metastases were measured while using CS to reduce scan time.

The implementation of the CS-encoding trajectory did not affect the T1 measurements in vitro. Accelerating the acquisition by a factor of 2 did not alter the contrast or the T1 values of the brain metastases. 3D T1 maps could be obtained in < 1 min using a CS factor of 6. Increasing the spatial resolution enabled more accurately measurement of the metastasis volumes while maintaining an acquisition duration below 5 min.

The CS-MP2RAGE sequence could be of great interest in oncology to either rapidly obtain mouse brain 3D T1 maps or to increase the spatial resolution with no penalty on the scan duration.