T2-Prepared Combined Acquisition Technique (CAT) for SAR Reduced Neuroimaging

Morwan Choli¹, Martin Blaimer¹, Peter M. Jakob¹, ²

The TSE-EPI-CAT hybrid approach integrates TSE and EPI-modules in a sequential fashion and is due to its low SAR an interesting candidate for high-field MRI. The free choice of the λ-factor describing the relative size of the TSE and EPI-modules was so far limited for arbitrary T2-contrast imaging. The proposed technique overcomes this limitation by using a combination of T2-preparation and TSE-EPI-CAT with the potential of significantly reduced λ and thus SAR. T2-weighted head images obtained with a SAR reduction up to 55% compared to a conventional TSE sequence show no significant loss of image quality with increasing EPI-module size.