Abstract #0392

Brittain J, Reeder S, Kelcz F, Busse R

High contrast, high resolution MRCP is demonstrated using a 3D-FRFSE sequence with T2-Prep. MRCP requires strong suppression of background signal in order to visualize small bile and pancreatic ducts. T2-Prep improves background suppression by allowing magnetization in short and moderate T2 materials to decay before beginning acquisition. In particular, this reduces the undesirable high spatial frequency contribution from blood vessels. Incompletely saturated fat decays more rapidly during the prep phase with widely spaced refocusing pulses, overcoming the bright fat effect that is notable in FSE. PSF analysis and in vivo experiments are presented.