Jiang Du1, Christine B. Chung1, Mark Bydder1, Won Bae1, Atsushi M. Takahashi2, Graeme M. Bydder1
1Radiology, University of California-San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA; 2Global Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare Technologies, Menlo Park, CA, USA
Imaging of short T2 tissues requires not only a short echo time (TE) but also efficient suppression of long T2 tissues in order to maximize the short T2 contrast and dynamic range. This paper introduces a novel method of long T2 suppression using two long adiabatic inversion pulses, with the first pulse inverting the longitudinal magnetization of long T2 water protons and the second one inverting the longitudinal magnetization of fat protons. Ultrashort TE (UTE) acquisition starts when both inverted magnetization reach the nulling point. The feasibility of this technique was demonstrated on phantom, cadaveric samples and healthy volunteers.