Shahid M. Hussain1, Jeremy Van Tilburg2, Mariah Smith-Miloff1, Thomas G. Perkins3
1Department of Radiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, United States; 2The Nebraska Medical Center, United States; 3Philips Healthcare, Cleveland, OH, United States
Compared to abdominal CT, current liver MRI exams are relatively long (often approx. 30 minutes vs. <5 min for CT). The introduction of 3.0T with higher SNR, phased array coils, parallel imaging techniques, and novel sequences allow us to perform real-time scanning and reconstruction. Decreasing imaging time should affect patient compliance and result in a more economic use of MRI machines, while providing a time-competitive alternative to CT examinations. Our results show that a 10-minutes comprehensive liver MRI protocol at 3.0T is feasible by the application of novel breath-hold sequences and a simultaneous scanning and reconstruction algorithm.