- Mitsue Miyazaki: Toshiba Medical Research Institute, Vernon Hills, Illinois, USA; Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation, Otawara Tochigi, Japan.
PURPOSE: To evaluate a new fat suppression technique using multiple fat suppression pulses intended for breast dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) imaging using segmented three-dimensional fast field echo (FFE).
MATERIALS AND METHODS: The effect of multiple spectrally-selective fat suppression radiofrequency pulses was modeled using numerical Bloch-equation solutions for the following fat suppression techniques: spectral-selective inversion recovery (SPIR: one pulse), double fat suppression (DFS: two pulses, combining one SPIR pulse and one CHESS pulse), and triple fat suppression (TFS: three pulses, combining one SPIR pulse and two CHESS pulses). The simulation data were evaluated in terms of fat suppression performance, scan time, and specific absorption rate (SAR) relative to the SPIR technique. The DFS technique was selected as the optimal technique based on the efficacy of fat suppression versus the costs of scan time and SAR. The DFS technique was compared with SPIR in six volunteer studies using segmented T1 -weighted three-dimensional FFE.
RESULTS: The DFS technique produced sufficient fat suppression using only two segments (two fat suppression shots). Breast DCE precontrast images using DFS presented uniform fat suppression compared with SPIR in both axial and sagittal scans in all six volunteers.
CONCLUSION: DFS is a promising fat suppression technique for breast imaging even in regions with B1 (+) inhomogeneity.