Reference Phantom Validation of T2-Mapping: Maximum Likelihood Estimation of T2 from Magnitude Phased-Array Multi-Echo Data

Clemens Bos¹, Adri Duijndam¹, Julien Sngas²

High-resolution T2 maps are often biased by noise signal that is rectified and mimics persistent long T2 signal. Maximum likelihood estimation with explicit inclusion of noise statistics in the signal model has the potential to mitigate this bias, and to minimize the variance of the resulting T2-map. Maximum likelihood estimation of T2 was validated on the eurospin reference phantom. T2 values were accurate well within 5%. Maximim likelihood estimation is compatible with phased-array coils and parallel imaging. In conclusion, maximum likelihood estimation has utility for accurate and precise pixel-wise calculation of T2.