Highly Accelerated, Intravascular T1, T2, and Proton Density Mapping with Linear Algebraic Modeling and Sensitivity Profile Correction at 3T.

Abstract

Vessel wall MRI with intravascular (IV) detectors can produce superior local signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) and generate high-resolution T₁, T₂, and proton density (PD) maps that could be used to automatically classify atherosclerotic lesion stage. However, long acquisition times potentially limit multi-parametric mapping. Here, for the first time, spectroscopy with linear algebraic modeling (SLAM) is applied to yield accurate compartment-average T₁, T₂ and PD measures at least 10 times faster compared to a standard full k-space reconstructed MIX-TSE sequence at 3T. Simple phase and magnitude sensitivity corrections are incorporated into the SLAM reconstruction to compensate for IV detector non-uniformity.