Anna-Katinka Bracher1, Daniel Kammer1, Erich Hell2, Johannes Ulrici2, Volker Rasche1
1Department of Internal Medicine II, University Hospital of Ulm, Ulm, BW, Germany; 2Sirona Dental Systems GmbH, Bensheim, Germany
In UTE imaging the k-space center is acquired during ramp-up of the read-out gradient. This leads to a quadratic T2 decay during acquisition of k-space center which effects the image quality. By applying a small prephasing gradient the k-space center is sampled at a higher read-out gradient and hence much faster than in the conventional UTE technique. The faster sampling causes less T2 decay during k-center sampling with a concomitant reduction of image blur due to T2 and off-resonance effects.