A MR Fingerprinting Development Kit (MRFDK) for Quantitative 3D Brain Imaging

Motivation: MRF acquisitions rely on offline reconstructions due to their computationally intensive processing pipelines which hinders integration into clinical workflows. Goal(s): To introduce and test a development kit for MRF, enabling 1) efficient whole brain 3D MRF acquisitions, 2) embedded dictionary calculation, and 3) rapid online post-processing. Approach: The method was evaluated with phantom and in vivo brain imaging for multiple MRF variants and receive coils. Results: Due to full scanner integration, high-quality T1 and T2 maps were presented on the host computer within 1 min after the MRF scan was completed, enabling timely visualization of the outcome. Impact: The MRF development kit has high potential to promote reproducibility, large-scale clinical evaluation and translation of the novel MRF technique.