Fast spin‐echo triple echo dixon: Initial clinical experience with a novel pulse sequence for simultaneous fat‐suppressed and nonfat‐suppressed T2‐weighted spine magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate a prototype fast spin-echo (FSE) triple-echo Dixon (FTED) technique for T2-weighted spine imaging with and without fat suppression compared to conventional T2-weighted fast recovery (FR) FSE and short-tau inversion recovery (STIR) imaging.Materials and Methods: Sixty-one patients were referred for spine magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including sagittal FTED (time 2:26), STIR (time 2:42), and T2 FRFSE (time 2:55). Two observers compared STIR and FTED water images and T2 FRFSE and FTED T2 images for overall image quality, fat suppression, anatomic sharpness, motion, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flow artifact, susceptibility, and disease depiction.Results: On FTED images water and fat separation was perfect in 58 (.95) patients. Compared to STIR, the FTED water images demonstrated less motion in 57 (.93) of 61 patients (P < 0.05), better anatomic sharpness in 51 (.84) and patients (P < 0.05), and less CSF flow artifact in 7 (.11) P < 0.05) patients. There was no difference in fat suppression or chemical shift artifact. T2 FRFSE and FTED T2 images showed equivalent motion, CSF flow, and chemical shift artifact. Lesion depiction was equivalent on FTED water and STIR images and FTED T2 and T2 FRFSE images.Conclusion: FTED efficiently provides both fat-suppressed and nonfat-suppressed T2-weighted spine images with excellent image quality, equal disease depiction, and 56% reduction in scan time compared to conventional STIR and T2 FRFSE.

Usefulness of the fast spin-echo three-point Dixon (mDixon) image of the knee joint on 3.0-T MRI: comparison with conventional fast spin-echoT2weighted image

“…6 Among these images, the middle echo with 0 phase offset is a T2WI without FS. 6 To generate wateronly images and fat-only images, three source images are used with a novel phase correction algorithm.…”

“…6 Among these images, the middle echo with 0 phase offset is a T2WI without FS. 6 To generate wateronly images and fat-only images, three source images are used with a novel phase correction algorithm. [12][13][14][15][16][17] The mDixon can produce T2WI with and without FS in a single acquisition, which might result in a 56% reduction in scan time compared with combined FSE T2WI and FS T2WI acquisition.…”

“…4,5 The mDixon technique provides rapid T 2 weighted imaging (T2WI) with and without FS; addition and subtraction of the separate images yields a fatonly and a water-only image. 6 The mDixon technique is different from frequency-selective FS or short tau inversion recovery (STIR) imaging because it relies on the separation of the water and fat signal rather than pure FS. 6 Knee joint imaging requires multiple planes and many sequences containing FS, which inevitably prolongs the total scan time.…”

“…6 The mDixon technique is different from frequency-selective FS or short tau inversion recovery (STIR) imaging because it relies on the separation of the water and fat signal rather than pure FS. 6 Knee joint imaging requires multiple planes and many sequences containing FS, which inevitably prolongs the total scan time. The mDixon technique rapidly generates multiple images (including FS and T 2 -like images, in phase) in a single acquisition; 6 thus, the use of mDixon images as substitutes for T2WI and FS T2WI would reduce the total scan time.…”

“…6 Knee joint imaging requires multiple planes and many sequences containing FS, which inevitably prolongs the total scan time. The mDixon technique rapidly generates multiple images (including FS and T 2 -like images, in phase) in a single acquisition; 6 thus, the use of mDixon images as substitutes for T2WI and FS T2WI would reduce the total scan time. The purpose of our study was to compare the quality of two different methods of imaging, mDixon and fast spin-echo (FSE) T2WI (T2WI and FS T2WI), and to assess the utility of mDixon for the imaging of knee joint pathology.…”