Abstract #3692

Improved Human Carotid Intraplaque Hemorrhage Imaging Using a Slab-Selective Phase-Sensitive Inversion-Recovery (SPI) Sequence

Jinnan Wang¹, Marina S. Ferguson², Niranjan Balu², Chun Yuan², Thomas S. Hatsukami², Peter Boernert³

¹Clinical Sites Research Program, Philips Research North America, Seattle, WA, United States; ²University of Washington; ³Philips Research Europe

Intraplaque hemorrhage (IPH) plays a critical role in the evolution of carotid atherosclerotic disease. In this study, a Slab-selective Phase-sensitive Inversion-recovery (SPI) technique, which combines both phase sensitive (PS) imaging and a specially designed IR turbo field echo (TFE) sequence, is proposed to improve the IPH contrast and blood suppression efficiency in human carotid IPH imaging. Significantly improved IPH contrast and blood suppression were found in the in vivo atherosclerotic patient scanning.