Abstract #3478

Maximum Likelihood Estimation of T1rho Relaxation Time in Lumbar Intervertebral Disc at 3T

Jing Yuan¹, Pengyu Yan², Greta S.P. Mok², Yi-Xiang Wang¹, Anil T. Ahuja¹, James F. Griffith¹

¹Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong; ²Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering,, University of Macau, Macau, NA, Macau

T1rho relaxation has potentials for quantitative evaluation of intervertebral disc degeneration. T1rho mapping is traditionally performed using least-squares (LS) fitting but LS method is a biased estimator in the presence of Rician-distributed noise for MR magnitude images. This study investigates the use of maximum likelihood (ML) estimation for lumbar disc T1rho mapping at 3T through Monte-Carlo simulation and in vivo scan. Results show that ML obtains less biased and more accurate estimation of lumbar disc T1rho compared to LS, particularly at low signal-to-noise ratios. ML benefits high spatial resolution spine T1rho imaging without compromising the accuracy of T1rho estimation.