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MR imaging of the cervical spine: assessment of image quality with parallel imaging compared to non-accelerated MR measurements

  • Musculoskeletal
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Abstract

To compare the quality of cervical spine MR images obtained by parallel imaging [generalized autocalibrating partially parallel acquisition (GRAPPA)] with those of non-accelerated imaging, we conducted both phantom studies and examinations of ten volunteers at 1.5Tesla with a dedicated 12-element coil system and a head-spine-neck coil combination. Acquisitions included axial T2-weighted (T2w) images with both methods, and sagittal T2w and T1w images in vivo with the latter coil combination. Non-accelerated MRI with two averages and GRAPPA (acceleration factor 2) with two averages (GRAPPA/2AV, time reduction of approximately 50%) and four averages (GRAPPA/4AV) were compared. In the phantom, the signal-to-noise ratio of the GRAPPA/2AV was lower than that of the other two settings. In vivo, the image inhomogeneity (non-uniformity, NU) was significantly higher in T2w GRAPPA/2AV than in both other settings, and in T1w GRAPPA/2AV compared to GRAPPA/4AV. Subjectively, the delineation of anatomical structures was sufficient in all sequences. Only the spinal cord was considered to be better delineable on the non-accelerated T1w sequence compared to GRAPPA/2AV. In part, GRAPPA/4AV performed better than the other settings. The subjective image noise was lowest with GRAPPA/4AV. In cervical spine MRI, the examination time can be reduced by nearly 42% with GRAPPA, while preserving sufficient image quality.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Medical University of Vienna, Waehringer Gürtel 18-20, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Iris-M. Noebauer-Huhmann & Herwig Imhof

  2. Institute of Clinical Radiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Christian Glaser, Olaf Dietrich, Claus-Peter Wallner, Wolfgang Klinger & Stefan O. Schoenberg

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  1. Iris-M. Noebauer-Huhmann
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  2. Christian Glaser
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  3. Olaf Dietrich
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  4. Claus-Peter Wallner
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  5. Wolfgang Klinger
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  6. Herwig Imhof
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  7. Stefan O. Schoenberg
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Correspondence to Iris-M. Noebauer-Huhmann.

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Noebauer-Huhmann, IM., Glaser, C., Dietrich, O. et al. MR imaging of the cervical spine: assessment of image quality with parallel imaging compared to non-accelerated MR measurements. Eur Radiol 17, 1147–1155 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-006-0411-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-006-0411-2

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