Wei Bian1,2, Kathryn Hammond Rosenbluth3,
Sarah J. Nelson2,4, Janine M. Lupo2
1Joint Graduate Program in
BioEngineering at UCSF & UCB, University of California San Francisco, San
Francisco, CA, United States; 2Department of Radiology &
Biomedical Imaging, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco,
CA, United States; 3Department of Neurological Surgery, University
of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States; 4Department
of BioEngineering & Therapeutic Sciences, University of California San
Francisco, San Francisco, CA, United States
Susceptibility-Weighted Imaging (SWI) and phase imaging can be generated from the same T2*-weighted gradient echo sequence. However, at 7T, the imaging parameters for both techniques have been developed separately. The goal of this study was to optimize a gradient-echo acquisition for magnitude, phase, and SWI in order to determine which acquisition yields the best contrast and when it is most appropriate to use each image modality. A 2D GRE sequence with an echo time between 12-15 ms was determined to be optimal. Phase imaging had the best contrast for depicting the boundary between gray and white matter, while SWI images were best for visualizing vasculature.