Sonia Nielles-Vallespin1, Peter Speier1, Peter Weale2, Saurabh Shah2, Edgar Mueller1
1Cardiovascular MR, Siemens AG Healthcare Sector, Erlangen, Germany; 2Cardiovascular MR, Siemens AG Healthcare Sector, Chicago, USA
Double Echo TrueFISP and FLASH Ultra-short Echo Time (UTE) images of the head are presented and compared in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and depiction of the short T2 components. The results demonstrate that a 3D TrueFISP UTE acquisition would provide significantly increased contrast, SNR and less sensitivity to eddy currents than a FLASH UTE acquisition. TrueFISP difference images showed up to 1.6 time higher SNR than FLASH difference images and better suppression of long T2 components. The delineation of bone appears much more precise in the TrueFISP subtraction image for identical acquisition time.