Elimination of chemical shift artifacts of thoracic spine with contrast-enhanced FLAIR imaging with fat suppression at 3.0 T

• Published in: Magnetic resonance imaging 2010-12, Vol.28 (10), p.1535-1540
• Main Authors: Lavdas, Eleftherios, Mavroidis, Panayiotis, Vassiou, Katerina, Roka, Violeta, Fezoulidis, Ioannis V, Vlychou, Marianna
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 3T MRI; Adipose Tissue - chemistry; Adipose Tissue - pathology; Chemical-shift artifact; Contrast Media; Gadolinium DTPA; Humans; Image Enhancement - methods; Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Radiology; Reproducibility of Results; Sensitivity and Specificity; Spinal Diseases - pathology; T1-weighted FLAIR sequence; Thoracic Vertebrae - chemistry; Thoracic Vertebrae - pathology
• ISSN: 0730-725X; 1873-5894; 1873-5894
• DOI: 10.1016/j.mri.2010.06.020

Abstract The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of chemical shift artifacts and fat suppression between contrast-enhanced T1-weighted fast spin-echo (FSE) sequence with fat suppression and contrast-enhanced T1-weighted fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequence with fat suppression in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the thoracic spine at 3.0T. Forty patients, who underwent MRI examination, were recruited and analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Due to chemical shift artifacts in the T1-weighted FSE, 14 of the patients were found to be of non-diagnostic value. On the contrary, in 11 of those 14 patients, no chemical shift artifacts were observed in the T1-weighted FLAIR sequence. Regarding the efficiency of fat suppression, both sequences achieved successful fat suppression. Consequently, the use of T1-weighted FLAIR fat suppression after contrast administration sequence seems to eliminate or significantly reduce image quality deterioration stemming from chemical shift artifacts in thoracic spine examinations.