Modern contrast agents for liver imaging have a specific hepatocellular uptake in healthy hepatocytes. Liver lesions without liver cells and malignant lesions experience no selective uptake. Using hepatobiliary contrast agents, the detection of liver lesions can be significantly improved due to increased contrast-to-noise ratio between focal liver lesions and healthy tissue. For further improvement in the detection rate, high resolution MR images without motion artifacts are necessary. One technique for achieving motion-free high resolution images is the use of a navigator-gated image acquisition. The purpose of this study is to characterize and optimize the image acquisition parameters, particularly the excitation flip angle of the navigator pulses, used in an investigational T1-weighted navigator-gated MRI sequence while imaging during the hepatobiliary phase after administration of Gadolinium-EOB-DTPA. The specific MRI sequence we will be evaluating for this project is the navigator-gated LAVA sequence currently being developed by GE Healthcare.
Flip Angle Optimizing of Navigator Profiles in a T1-weighted MRI-Sequence (LAVA) using the Hepatobiliary Agent Gadolinium-EOB-DTPA
This project was funded by: Radiology RD
The term of this project was: August 2011 to December 2011
The number of subjects scanned during this project was: 10