Reducing scan time for full MRI examination of the ankle by 45% while maintaining diagnostic value using combined compressed sensing and parallel imaging.

Dixon imaging is a well-known imaging technique that provides robust water-fat separation but requires relatively long acquisition times. We scanned twelve healthy volunteers with a standard ankle examination containing multiple Dixon sequences and an accelerated examination using CS-SENSE, a combination of Parallel Imaging and Compressed Sensing. A five-point Likert scale was used to compare reference images to CS-SENSE images. Although using CS-SENSE caused a slight SNR reduction, the diagnostic value was not impaired. Applying CS-SENSE on an ankle examination protocol resulted in a feasible reduction of the total acquisition time by 45% from 13’38” to 7’49”, without losing diagnostic value.