Renal Corticomedullary Differentiation by Non-contrast-enhanced MR Imaging with a Spatially Selective IR Pulse at Various Inversion Times: Comparison with Fast Asymmetric Spin Echo (FASE) and Steady-state Free-precession (SSFP)

We compared visualization of corticomedullary differentiation between fast asymmetric spin echo (FASE) and steady-state free precession (SSFP) combined with spatially selective inversion recovery (IR) pulse and optimal inversion time (TI). Though the corticomedullary contrast ratio was higher in FASE than SSFP images, visualization of corticomedullary differentiation was significantly better in SSFP images than FASE images obtained with spatially selective IR pulses and optimal TI.