Magnetic resonance fingerprinting for simultaneous renal T₁ and mapping in a single breath-hold

To evaluate the use of magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) for simultaneous quantification of $$ and $$ in a single breath-hold in the kidneys.

The proposed kidney MRF sequence was based on MRF echo-planar imaging. Thirty-five measurements per slice and overall 4 slices were measured in 15.4 seconds. Group matching was performed for in-line quantification of $$ and $$ . Images were acquired in a phantom and 8 healthy volunteers in coronal orientation. To evaluate our approach, region of interests were drawn in the kidneys to calculate mean values and standard deviations of the $$ and $$ times. Precision was calculated across multiple repeated MRF scans. Gaussian filtering is applied on baseline images to improve SNR and match stability.

$$ and $$ times acquired with MRF in the phantom showed good agreement with reference measurements and conventional mapping methods with deviations of less than 5% for $$ and less than 10% for $$ . Baseline images in vivo were free of artifacts and relaxation times yielded good agreement with conventional methods and literature (deviation $$ , $$ ).

In this feasibility study, the proposed renal MRF sequence resulted in accurate $$ and $$ quantification in a single breath-hold.