Fast 3D magnetic resonance fingerprinting for a whole-brain coverage

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to accelerate the acquisition and reconstruction time of 3D magnetic resonance fingerprinting scans. MethodsA 3D magnetic resonance fingerprinting scan was accelerated by using a single-shot spiral trajectory with an undersampling factor of 48 in the x-y plane, and an interleaved sampling pattern with an undersampling factor of 3 through plane. Further acceleration came from reducing the waiting time between neighboring partitions. The reconstruction time was accelerated by applying singular value decomposition compression in k-space. Finally, a 3D premeasured B-1 map was used to correct for the B-1 inhomogeneity. ResultsThe T-1 and T-2 values of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine/National Institute of Standards and Technology MRI phantom showed a good agreement with the standard values, with an average concordance correlation coefficient of 0.99, and coefficient of variation of 7% in the repeatability scans. The results from in vivo scans also showed high image quality in both transverse and coronal views. ConclusionsThis study applied a fast acquisition scheme for a fully quantitative 3D magnetic resonance fingerprinting scan with a total acceleration factor of 144 as compared with the Nyquist rate, such that 3D T-1, T-2, and proton density maps can be acquired with whole-brain coverage at clinical resolution in less than 5min. Magn Reson Med 79:2190-2197, 2018. (c) 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.