Cutting-Edge MR Spectroscopic Imaging
Weekday Course

ORGANIZERS: Wolfgang Bogner, Roland Kreis, Malgorzata Marjanska

Wednesday, 15 May 2019

Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Session Number: W-03

Overview
This course provides an introduction to new or emerging MR spectroscopic imaging approaches. The session will start with a brief overview of MR spectroscopic imaging basics, followed by an overview of advanced acquisition & reconstruction approaches that make fast high-resolution whole-organ MR spectroscopic imaging clinically feasible.

The following topics will be covered:
- Undersampled MRSI (e.g., parallel imaging, compressed sensing)
- Spatial-spectral MRSI encoding (e.g., Cartesian/non-Cartesian)
- MRSI using spatial-spectral prior knowledge (e.g., SPICE)
- MRSI processing & automation

In-depth discussion will follow with a focus on proton MRSI of the brain, but including also multi-nuclear applications as well as both hardware and field strength dependencies. Applications that benefit from fast 3D MRSI will be presented.

Target Audience
MR scientists and clinicians/neuroscientists interested in the current possibilities and future of the state-of-the-art whole-organ MR spectroscopic imaging for studying normal and pathological brain metabolism as well as diagnosing clinically relevant conditions.

Educational Objectives
As a result of attending this course, participants should be able to:
- Appraise the role of emerging MR spectroscopic imaging techniques for clinically feasible whole-organ metabolic imaging;
- Outline data acquisition and reconstruction requirements for effective application of these techniques; and
- Summarize the metabolic and other parameters that can be mapped in a clinical and/or research setting using MR spectroscopic imaging.