%0 Journal Article
%A Gras, Vincent
%A Farrher, Ezequiel
%A Grinberg, Farida
%A Shah, N. J.
%T Diffusion-weighted DESS protocol optimization for simultaneous mapping of the mean diffusivity, proton density and relaxation times at 3 Tesla
%J Magnetic resonance in medicine
%V 78
%N 1
%@ 0740-3194
%C New York, NY [u.a.]
%I Wiley-Liss
%M FZJ-2019-02109
%P 130 - 141
%D 2017
%X PurposeTo design a general framework for the optimization of an MRI protocol based on the the diffusion‐weighted dual‐echo steady‐state (DW‐DESS) sequence, enabling quantitative and simultaneous mapping of proton density (PD), relaxation times urn:x-wiley:07403194:media:mrm26353:mrm26353-math-0001 and urn:x-wiley:07403194:media:mrm26353:mrm26353-math-0002 and diffusion coefficient D.MethodsA parameterization of the DW‐DESS sequence minimizing the Cramér‐Rao lower bound of each parameter estimate was proposed and tested in a phantom experiment. An extension of the protocol was implemented for brain imaging to return the rotationally invariant mean diffusivity (MD).ResultsIn an NiCl2‐doped agar gel phantom wherein urn:x-wiley:07403194:media:mrm26353:mrm26353-math-0003 ms, the parameter estimation errors were below 3% for PD and urn:x-wiley:07403194:media:mrm26353:mrm26353-math-0004 and below 7% for urn:x-wiley:07403194:media:mrm26353:mrm26353-math-0005 and D while the measured signal‐to‐noise ratio always exceeded 20. In the human brain, the in vivo parametric maps obtained were overall in reasonable agreement with gold standard measurements, despite a broadening of the distributions due to physiological motion.ConclusionWithin the optimization framework presented here, DW‐DESS images can be quantitatively interpreted to yield four intrinsic parameters of the tissue. Currently, the method is limited by the sensitivity of the DW‐DESS sequence in terms of physiological motion. Magn Reson Med 78:130–141, 2017. © 2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%$ pmid:27476684
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000403803900013
%R 10.1002/mrm.26353
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/861672