Multi-contrast Imaging with High Quality and High Scan Efficiency using Three-dimensional Dual-pathway Echo-planar Imaging Sequence

Motivation: While current multi-contrast imaging technique spoiled gradient recalled echo (SPGR) requires a long acquisition time and with a relatively low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), an efficient three-dimensional (3D) dual-pathway sequence may improve image quality with a reduced scan time. Goal(s): Our goal is to demonstrate an image quality improvement in multi-contrast imaging with our proposed 3D double-echo steady-state echo-planar imaging (DESS-EPI) sequence. Approach: We design and implement a 3D DESS-EPI sequence and evaluate SNR and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of acquired images. Results: Our results demonstrate the potential advantages of the 3D DESS-EPI sequence in terms of imaging quality and efficiency. Impact: The improvement in time efficiency and image quality using our 3D DESS-EPI sequence illustrates the prospective benefits in multi-contrast imaging, which is appropriate for temperature mapping, quantitative mapping, field mapping, susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) and quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM).