Andre Jan Willem van der Kouwe1,2, Thomas Benner1,2, Michael Hamm3, Sonia Nielles-Vallespin4, Bruce Fischl5,6
1Athinoula A. Martinos Center for
Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; 2Department
of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Brookline, MA, USA; 3Siemens
Medical Solutions USA Inc., Charlestown, MA, USA; 4Siemens
Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany; 5Department of Radiology,
Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; 6CSAIL,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
Automated whole head segmentation and bone identification requires various contrasts from the optimized scans used for automated brain morphometry. In particular, imaging bone using MR is challenging. We present a combined multiecho radial/Cartesian encoded spoiled gradient echo sequence that yields several contrasts in a single sequence including an ultrashort FID containing the signature of bone and later components that can be used to identify water and fat and estimate the B0 field offset. Quantitative spin density and T1 relaxation times can also be estimated, using established techniques, if more than one flip angle is collected.