Direct reconstruction of T_1 from k-space using a radial saturation-recovery sequence

摘要

Contrast agent concentration ([CA]) must be known accurately to quantify dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MR imaging. Accurate concentrations can be obtained if the longitudinal relaxation rate constant T1 is known both pre- and post-contrast injection. Post-contrast signal intensity in the images is often saturated and an approximation to T_1 can be difficult to obtain. One method that has been proposed for accurate T_1 estimation effectively acquires multiple images with different effective saturation recovery times (eSRTs) and fits the images to the equation for T_1 recovery to obtain T_1 values. This was done with a radial saturation-recovery sequence for 2D imaging of myocardial perfusion with DCE MRI. This multi-SRT method assumes that the signal intensity is constant for different readouts in each image. Here this assumption is not necessary as a model-based reconstruction method is proposed that directly reconstructs an image of T_1 values from k-space. The magnetization for each ray at each readout pulse is modeled in the reconstruction with Bloch equations. Computer simulations based on a 72 ray cardiac DCE MRI acquisition were used to test the method. The direct model-based reconstruction gave accurate T1 values and was slightly more accurate than the multi-SRT method that used three sub-images.