Proton MRI of Human Lung Using 2D Radial Acquisition at 1.5 T and 3.0 T

Jascha Zapp¹, Simon Konstandin¹, Lothar R. Schad¹

MRI of the lung is challenging because of low proton density, respiratory and cardiac motion and susceptibility effects at air-tissue interfaces. A healthy volunteer was examined using a 2D radial gradient echo technique (resolution: 0.8mm x 0.8mm x 5.0mm) with conventional (full) RF pulses (TE=0.77ms) and half RF pulses (TE=0.02ms) at 1.5T and 3.0T. Average SNR in lung parenchyma resulted in an increase of 56% at 3.0T compared to 1.5T with TE=0.02ms. The result shows that SNR in proton MRI of human lung at 3.0T is superior to 1.5T when using a 2D radial sequence with ultrashort echo time.