Comparison of Dixon Methods for Fat Suppression in Single Breath-Hold 3D Gradient-Echo Abdominal MRI

Holger Eggers¹, Bernhard Brendel¹, Gwenael Herigault²

Dixon methods have been demonstrated to provide a robust fat suppression in abdominal imaging. To achieve adequate coverage and spatial resolution in a single breath-hold, scan efficiency plays a crucial role in this application. Four Dixon methods, including a new one, are compared in this work regarding their scan efficiency. Constraints on the used echo times are found to be at least as limiting as the minimum number of echo times. The new method, which relaxes constraints of existing two-echo methods, is shown to allow an acceleration of protocols by up to 40%.