BLADE for T1-Weighted Contrast with Spectral Fat Suppression: Two Different Approaches for Head and Neck Imaging

Claudia Fellner¹, Niels Zorger¹, Ernst M. Jung¹, Stefan Feuerbach¹, Thomas Finkenzeller¹

In 40 patients two BLADE techniques for coronal contrast-enhanced T1-weighted imaging with fat suppression were compared to TSE: IR-BLADE with a preceeding inversion pulse and BLADE with short TE and intermediate ETL. Artifacts and contrast of anatomical and pathological structures were evaluated by two independent readers. Flow artifacts and delineation of thoracic structures were significantly improved with both BLADE techniques, but contrast between lymph nodes and fat was inferior to TSE. Although lesion contrast gave no statistically significant differences between TSE and IR-BLADE, one tongue carcinoma was missed in IR-BLADE. Therefore, both BLADE approaches cannot be generally recommended so far.