Francesco Santini1,2, Xeni Deligianni1,2, Matteo Paoletti3, Francesca Solazzo3, Matthias Weigel1,4,5, Paulo Loureiro De Sousa6, Oliver Bieri1,2, Mauro Monforte7, Enzo Ricci7,8, Giorgio Tasca7, Anna Pichiecchio3,9, and Niels Bergsland10,11
1Radiological Physics, Department of Radiology, University Hospital of Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel, Allschwil, Switzerland, 3Neurological Institute Foundation Casimiro Mondino (IRCCS), Pavia, Italy, 4Translational Imaging in Neurology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel, Allschwil, Switzerland, 5Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 6UMR7357 Laboratoire des sciences de l'Ingénieur, de l'Informatique et de l'Imagerie (ICube), Strasbourg, France, 7Institute of Neurology, A. Gemelli University Hospital Foundation, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy, 8Institute of Neurology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy, 9Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, 10Western New York Stem Cell Culture and Analysis Center, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States, 11Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi Onlus (IRCCS), Milan, Italy
1Radiological Physics, Department of Radiology, University Hospital of Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 2Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel, Allschwil, Switzerland, 3Neurological Institute Foundation Casimiro Mondino (IRCCS), Pavia, Italy, 4Translational Imaging in Neurology, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Basel, Allschwil, Switzerland, 5Department of Neurology, University Hospital of Basel, Basel, Switzerland, 6UMR7357 Laboratoire des sciences de l'Ingénieur, de l'Informatique et de l'Imagerie (ICube), Strasbourg, France, 7Institute of Neurology, A. Gemelli University Hospital Foundation, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy, 8Institute of Neurology, Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy, 9Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy, 10Western New York Stem Cell Culture and Analysis Center, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States, 11Fondazione Don Carlo Gnocchi Onlus (IRCCS), Milan, Italy
Water T2 can be efficiently estimated from multi-echo spin-echo acquisitions. The incorporation of an external fat fraction scan improves the accuracy and reduces the scan time. An optimized implementation of this method is released publicly.
Figure 1: Water T2 (left), Fat Fraction (middle), and relative B1 (right) maps of a patient (top) and healthy volunteer (bottom), reconstructed from a 17-echo acquisition without fat fraction constraint.
Figure 2: Water T2 maps for a patient, reconstructed from different numbers of echoes with (right) and without (left) an external fat fraction constraint.