Dual-source parallel radiofrequency excitation ACR phantom magnetic resonance imaging at 3 T: Assessment of the effect of image quality on high-contrast spatial resolution, percent signal ghosting, and low-contrast object detectability in comparison with conventional single-source transmission

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to assess dual-source parallel radiofrequency (RF) excitation American College of Radiology (ACR) phantom magnetic resonance (MR) imaging at 3T compared with conventional single-source RF transmission and compared with the standard ACR MRI phantom test. We used a 3T MR scanner equipped with dual-source parallel RF excitation and an 8-channel head phased array coil. We employed T1- and T2-weighted fast spin echo (FSE) pulse sequences for an assessment of the impact of image quality on high-contrast spatial resolution, percent signal ghosting and low-contrast object detectability following the ACR MRI quality control (QC) manual. With geometric accuracy and identical slice locations, dual RFs using dual-source parallel RF excitation MR showed an advantage over single RF using dual-source parallel RF excitation MR and conventional MR in terms of high-contrast spatial resolution (p < 0.010), percent signal ghosting (p < 0.010), and low-contrast object detectability (p < 0.010). The quality of the image from the dual-source parallel RF excitation MR equipment was superior to that of the image from conventional MR equipment for the ACR phantom. We need to pursue dual-source parallel RF excitation MR studies involving various clinical cases.