Effective blood signal suppression using double inversion-recovery and slice reordering for multislice fast spin-echo MRI and its application in simultaneous proton density and T2 weighted imaging.

Purpose To design a multislice double inversion-recovery fast spin-echo (FSE) sequence, with k-space reordered by inversion time at slice position (KRISP) technique, to produce black-blood vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Materials and Methods In this sequence, central k-space sampling for each slice is required at inversion time (TI) of the blood signal. To fill the entire k-space, the peripheral lines are obtained less or greater the TI and using a rotating slice order. Blood flow signal suppression was first evaluated using a phantom. Simulation studies were used to investigate FSE image quality. The final sequence was then applied to the rabbit abdominal aorta MRI at 4.7 T. Results In the flow phantom study, artifacts from slow-flowing water were substantially reduced by the KRISP technique; residual water spins were dephased by the strong phase-encoding gradient required for peripheral k-space. These dephased spins flowed into the slice plane where the center of k-space was being acquired at the TI of the flowing water signal. Multislice black-blood MR images were successfully obtained in the rabbit abdomen using the sequence with the k-trajectory optimized by the simulation study. Conclusion The KRISP technique was effective both in multislice double inversion-recovery FSE and in blood signal suppression. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2004;20:881-888. © 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]