Three-dimensional high-isotropic-resolution MR fingerprinting optimized for 0.55 T

Xiaozhi Cao; Congyu Liao; Zheren Zhu; Zhitao Li; Rupsa Bhattacharjee; Mark Nishmura; Zhixing Wang; Nan Wang; Zihan Zhou; Quan Chen; Daniel Abraham; Sharmila Majumdar; Javier Villanueva-Meyer; Yang Yang; Kawin Setsompop

doi:10.1002/mrm.30420

Three-dimensional high-isotropic-resolution MR fingerprinting optimized for 0.55 T

Magn Reson Med. 2025 Jan 15. doi: 10.1002/mrm.30420. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Xiaozhi Cao^{1

2}, Congyu Liao^{1

2}, Zheren Zhu³, Zhitao Li¹, Rupsa Bhattacharjee³, Mark Nishmura², Zhixing Wang^{4

5}, Nan Wang^{1

2}, Zihan Zhou^{1

2}, Quan Chen^{1

2}, Daniel Abraham^{1

2}, Sharmila Majumdar³, Javier Villanueva-Meyer³, Yang Yang³, Kawin Setsompop^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
² Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
³ Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, California, USA.
⁴ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.
⁵ Department of Radiation Oncology, City of Hope National Cancer Center, Los Angeles, California, USA.

PMID: 39815710
DOI: 10.1002/mrm.30420

Abstract

Purpose: To provide a fast quantitative imaging approach for a 0.55T scanner, where signal-to-noise ratio is limited by the field strength and k-space sampling speed is limited by a lower specification gradient system.

Methods: We adapted the three-dimensional spiral projection imaging MR fingerprinting approach to 0.55T scanners, with additional features incorporated to improve the image quality of quantitative brain and musculoskeletal imaging, including (i) improved k-space sampling efficiency, (ii) Cramér-Rao lower bound optimized flip-angle pattern for specified T₁ and T₂ at 0.55 T, (iii) gradient trajectory correction, (iv) attention-based denoising, and (v) motion estimation and correction.

Results: The proposed MRF acquisition and reconstruction framework can provide high-quality 1.2-mm isotropic whole-brain quantitative maps and 1-mm isotropic knee quantitative maps, each acquired in 4.5 min. The proposed method was validated in both phantom and in vivo brain and knee studies.

Conclusion: By proposing novel methods and integrating advanced techniques, we achieved high-isotropic-resolution MRF on a 0.55T scanner, demonstrating enhanced efficiency, motion resilience, and quantitative accuracy.

Keywords: 0.55 T; MRF; midfield MRI; quantitative mapping.

Abstract

Grants and funding