Simple recipe for accurate T 2 quantification with multi spin-echo acquisitions

Abstract

The quantification of magnetic resonance relaxation parameters T 1 and T 2 have the potential for improved disease detection and classification over standard clinical weighted imaging. Performing a mono-exponential fit on multi spin-echo (MSE) data provides quantitative T 2 values in a clinically acceptable scan-time. However, due to technical imperfections of refocusing pulses, stimulated echo contributions to the signals lead to significant deviations in the resulting T 2 values. In this work, a simple auto-calibrating correction procedure is presented, allowing the accurate estimation of T 2 from MSE acquisitions. Correction factors for T 2 values obtained from MSE acquisitions with a mono-exponential fit are derived from simulations following the extended phase graph formulation. A closed formula is given for the calculation of the required correction factors directly from the measured data itself. Simulations and phantom experiments show high accuracy of corrected T 2 values for a wide range of clinically relevant T 2 values and for different nominal refocusing flip angles. In addition, corrected T 2 maps of the human brain are presented. A simple recipe is provided to correct T 2 values obtained from MSE acquisitions via a mono-exponential fit for the influence of stimulated echoes. Since all required parameters are extracted from the data themselves, no additional acquisitions are required.