In this study, we developed a fast MR elastography (MRE) pulse sequence using a simultaneous multislice (SMS)-EPI acquisition. The feasibility of SMS-EPI-MRE was demonstrated on a compact 3T scanner in a pilot volunteer study using 2 different head-coil arrays. Our results show that the overall scan time for 60-Hz 3-mm isotropic and 80-Hz 2-mm isotropic whole-brain MRE acquisitions were greatly reduced to 1-2 minutes (depending on the multiband acceleration) and 3:21 minutes, respectively. The wave images and stiffness maps from the SMS acquisitions were comparable to conventional MRE results.
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