Abstract #2444

Reeder S, Wieben O, Shimakawa A, Vu A, Hargreaves B, McKenzie C, Brittain J, Polzin J

Dynamic contrast enhanced imaging of the liver requires robust fat-suppression and complete volumetric liver coverage within a reasonable breath-hold interval. In this work we described the combination of IDEAL, a chemical-shift based water-fat separation method, with a multi-echo 3D-SPGR acquisition for rapid volumetric imaging of the liver within a breath-hold. The use of multiple echoes greatly improves the SNR efficiency of this approach, with an effective signal averaging of three in a single TR. Imaging of the entire liver with robust water-fat separation was possible in breath-hold times less than 20seconds.