3D MR fingerprinting using Seiffert spirals

Area of Science:

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging
• Quantitative MRI
• Biomedical Engineering

Background:

• 3D MR fingerprinting (MRF) enables rapid acquisition of T1 and T2 relaxation maps.
• Traditional MRF sequences may not fully sample 3D k-space efficiently per TR.
• Seiffert spirals offer an efficient method for 3D k-space traversal.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate a 3D MRF sequence utilizing Seiffert spirals for T1 and T2 mapping.
• To compare the performance of Seiffert spiral MRF against conventional 2D spiral MRF sequences.

Main Methods:

• A 3D MRF sequence with 8 rotated Seiffert spirals and flip angle modulation was designed.
• The Seiffert spiral sequence was compared to a 2D spiral MRF sequence with tiny golden angle acquisition.
• Evaluation involved simulations, phantom studies, and in vivo imaging.

Main Results:

• The Seiffert spiral MRF sequence performed comparably to or better than the 2D spiral MRF sequence.
• High intraclass correlation coefficients (>0.9) were observed between conventional and MRF sequences in phantoms.
• In vivo imaging demonstrated reduced aliasing artifacts with the Seiffert trajectory.

Conclusions:

• Seiffert spirals integrated into MRF acquire high-resolution T1 and T2 maps in under 2.5 minutes.
• Even sampling of 3D k-space using Seiffert trajectories improves quantification and reduces scan times.
• This technique holds promise for accelerated quantitative MRI.