Basic evaluation of a new technique, tailored contrast truck-fluid-attenuated driven inversion-recovery (TACT-FLADIR), to attenuate the signals of both cerebrospinal fluid and inflow artifacts

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the new tailored contrast truck-fluid-attenuated driven inversion-recovery (TACT-FLADIR) sequence. Technically, this sequence uses a nonselectively driven inversion (DI) pulse as the inversion pulse. The DI pulse has two parameters, number of refocus pulses (NR) and preparation time (TP). Using normal volunteers, we optimized NR and TP to measure signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR) of gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM), and to obtain CSF inflow artifacts. TACT-FLADIR was compared with conventional FLAIR using volunteers and patients. Among the optimized parameters, SNR and CNR were dependent on TP, and inflow artifacts were reduced by increasing NR. In brain imaging, TACT-FLADIR provided improvement in both SNR and CNR compared with conventional imaging with suppressed CSF signal and saturated flow artifacts.