Eberhard Daniel Pracht1,
Thorsten Feiweier2, Philipp Ehses3, Daniel Brenner1,
Bernd Weber4, Tony Stcker1
1German
Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany; 2Siemens
AG, Siemens AG, Erlangen, Germany; 3Max Planck Institute for
Biological Cybernetics, Tbingen, Germany; 4Department of
Epileptology, University Hospital Bonn, Bonn, Germany
The DIR sequence is commonly used for simultaneous white matter and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) suppression. Gray matter (GM) imaging is important for cortical lesion detection in neurological diseases, such as epilepsy and Alzheimer's. The aim of this project was to optimize the DIR Turbo-Spin-Echo (TSE) sequence, enabling whole brain acquisition at a resolution of 1 x 1 x 1 mm3 or below, in less than 10 minutes scan time. Both, the DIR preparation module, as well as the TSE imaging module were specifically designed for high field applications to overcome SAR limitations and to optimize image quality.