Ross W. Mair1, 2, Andre J. van der Kouwe2, Thomas Benner2, Bruce Fischl2, 3, Randy L. Buckner1, 2
1Center for Brain Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, United States; 2A.A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States; 3Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, United States
The multi-echo MPRAGE (MEMPRAGE) sequence was implemented to reduce signal distortion by acquiring at a higher bandwidth and averaging multiple echoes to recover SNR while providing additional T2* information that can enhance cortical segmentation. Here, we validate the morphometric results obtained from a rapid 2-minute MEMPRAGE scan by comparison to those from a conventional 6-minute MPRAGE scan acquired in the same session. The results indicate that the rapid 2-minute MEMPRAGE protocol employing 4-fold acceleration can be used in place of conventional longer MPRAGE scans without degradation of the quantitative morphometric results obtained.