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Abstract #4314

Elimination of T1 Weighting in FLAIR by Optimized Double IR Could This Be the Only T2-Weighted Sequence Needed?

Ananth J. Madhuranthakam1, Subhendra N. Sarkar2,3, Reed F. Busse4, David C. Alsop2,3

1MR Applied Science Lab, GE Healthcare, Boston, MA, United States; 2Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States; 3Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; 4MR Applied Science Lab, GE Healthcare, Madison, WI, United States


FLAIR is widely used for its improved conspicuity of long T2 lesions. However, concerns remain that the IR imparts T1 weighting that can decrease detectability of some lesions. Frequently, both T2 and FLAIR are used in clinical protocols to guard against these concerns. Recently, double IR (DIR) has been proposed to highlight some brain lesions by nulling both WM and CSF but produces even stronger T1 contrast than FLAIR. Here, we describe an optimization with DIR to produce an image with pure T2 weighting while simultaneously suppressing CSF and demonstrate results in normal volunteers with a single slab 3D acquisition.