(SENSE) A
MRI technique for relevant
scan time reduction. The spatial information related to the coils of a
receiver array are utilized for reducing conventional
Fourier encoding. In principle, SENSE can be applied to any
imaging sequence and
k-space trajectories. However, it is particularly feasible for
Cartesian sampling schemes. In 2D
Fourier imaging with common
Cartesian sampling of
k-space sensitivity encoding by means of a
receiver array enables to reduce the number of
Fourier encoding steps.
SENSE
reconstruction without artifacts relies on accurate knowledge of the individual
coil sensitivities. For sensitivity assessment, low-resolution, fully
Fourier-encoded reference images are required, obtained with each array
element and with a
body coil.
The major negative point of parallel imaging techniques is that they diminish
SNR in proportion to the numbers of reduction factors.
R is the factor by which the number of
k-space samples is reduced. In standard
Fourier imaging reducing the
sampling density results in the reduction of the
FOV, causing
aliasing. In fact, SENSE
reconstruction in the Cartesian case is efficiently performed by first creating one such aliased image for each array
element using discrete
Fourier transformation (DFT).
The next step then is to create a full-FOV image from the set of intermediate images. To achieve this one must undo the signal superposition underlying the fold-over effect. That is, for each
pixel in the reduced
FOV the signal contributions from a number of positions in the full
FOV need to be separated. These positions form a Cartesian grid corresponding to the size of the reduced
FOV.
The advantages are especially true for contrast-enhanced
MR imaging such as
dynamic
liver MRI (liver imaging) ,
3 dimensional magnetic resonance angiography (
3D
MRA), and
magnetic resonance cholangiopancreaticography (
MRCP).
The excellent scan speed of SENSE allows for acquisition of two separate sets of hepatic MR images within the time regarded as the hepatic arterial-phase (double arterial-phase technique) as well as that of multidetector CT.
SENSE can also increase the time efficiency of spatial signal encoding in
3D
MRA. With SENSE, even ultrafast (sub
second) 4D
MRA can be realized.
For
MRCP acquisition, high-resolution
3D
MRCP images can be constantly provided by SENSE. This is because SENSE resolves the presence of the severe motion artifacts due to longer
acquisition time. Longer
acquisition time, which results in diminishing image quality, is the greatest problem for
3D
MRCP imaging.
In addition, SENSE reduces the train of
gradient echoes in combination with a faster
k-space traversal per unit time, thereby dramatically improving the image quality of single
shot echo planar imaging (i.e.
T2 weighted,
diffusion weighted imaging).