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Abstract #4532

Preserving Signal Contrast in Multi-Slice Black Blood Fast Spin Echo

Ananth J. Madhuranthakam1, Jesse L. Wei2, Jean H. Brittain3, Neil M. Rofsky2, David C. Alsop2

1Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Boston, MA, USA; 2Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA; 3Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Madison, WI, USA


When double inversion recovery (DIR) is used with single shot fast spin echo (SSFSE) to achieve multi-slice black blood images, the signal contrast is preserved in the first slice but degrades in later acquired slices due to the absence of sufficient recovery time. This is especially problematic for long T1 species, for instance, lesions with moderately prolonged T1 causing difficulty in diagnosis due to alterations in normally seen contrast. In this work, we demonstrate a technique to achieve black blood by using a preparation sequence to suppress fast moving spins while preserving signal contrast in all single shot slices.