Abstract #3631

Toffanin R, Cadioli M, Scotti G, Cova M

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a multi-shot EPI sequence for the ultrafast T2* mapping of bone marrow. Experiments were performed on the calcaneus of six healthy volunteers at 1.5 Tesla and 3.0 Tesla. A standard gradient-echo sequence with similar acquisition parameters was also used for comparison. T2* parametric maps without and with B0 correction were calculated off-line. The results indicate that ultrafast T2* mapping of bone marrow is feasible at 1.5 Tesla and at3.0 Tesla. Furher studies have to be performed to investigate the full potential of the proposed approach in the clinical investigation of osteoporosis.