Dephased Double Echo Imaging with Outer Volume Suppression for Accelerated White Marker Imaging in MR-Guided Interventions

Axel Joachim Krafft¹, Alexander Brunner¹, Jaane Rauschenberg¹, Joachim Pfeffer², Klaus Dring², Wolfhard Semmler¹, Michael Bock¹

The localization of passive markers in MR-guided interventions, espcially in intravascular applications, can be hampered due to image atrifacts arising from motion and blood flow. Recently, a double echo (DE) sequence was proposed acquiring a conventional spoiled GRE image and an additional dephased image depicting passive marker materials with a positive contrast. As two echoes have to be collected within one TR-interval, reduction of the total acquisition time is challenging. In this study, we combined the DE imaging technique with outer volume suppression to enable accelerated white marker imaging by means of a highly restricted FOV in phase-encoding direction.