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AJNR - American Journal of Neuroradiology

Published ahead of print on May 27, 2009
doi: 10.3174/ajnr.A1619

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American Journal of Neuroradiology 30:1840-1846, November-December 2009
© 2009 American Society of Neuroradiology

SPINE

Subminute Fat-Water-Separated Dual-Echo Automated Spine Survey Iterative Scan Technique

K.L. Weiss^a, C.R. Richards^b, D. Sun^a,c and J.L. Weiss^a,d

^aFrom the Department of Radiology (K.L.W., D.S., J.L.W.), University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
^bUniversity of Cincinnati College of Medicine (C.R.R.), Cincinnati, Ohio
^cInstitute of Information Science (D.S.), College of Computer and Information Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing. P.R. China
^dDivision of Research (J.L.W.), Westimage, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Please address correspondence to Kenneth L. Weiss, MD, Department of Radiology, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, 234 Goodman St, PO Box 670762, Cincinnati, OH 45267-0762; e-mail: Pweisskl{at}uc.edu

SUMMARY: We developed and tested an automated sub-minute 3D dual-echo MR imaging technique producing fat-water color-encoded labeled images of the entire spine. Twenty-one subjects were scanned with the 2-point Dixon technique utilizing 2 contiguous 21-22 second breath-hold sagittal acquisitions. Fourteen alternating subject scan sessions were achieved in 58 minutes. In all cases, fat-water separation was homogenous over the 70 cm FOV; in 2 lower stations fat/water assignments were reversed. Rapid automated fat-water decomposition spine screening is a promising technique.