Development of an Optimizing Program of Scanning Parameters for Double Inversion Recovery MRI

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop an optimizing program of scanning parameters for double inversion recovery (DIR) MRI. The optimization algorithm consists of the following steps: (1) obtaining the initial parameters (TR, TE, and T₁ values of the two attenuated tissues); (2) iterative calculation for minimization of errors; and (3) determination of the optimized TI^1st and TI^2nd. To evaluate the developed algorithm, we performed the phantom and simulation studies using the phantoms which were imitated T₁ values of white and gray matters and cerebrospinal fluid. In addition, white matter attenuated inversion recovery (WAIR) and gray matter attenuated inversion recovery (GAIR) images were obtained by optimized scan parameters in one volunteer. The developed algorithm could calculate the optimized TI^1st and TI^2nd values at once. Results of summation of signal intensity (SI) of two attenuated tissues shows that the SI of the two tissues were well-attenuated using the theoretical values which were calculated using the developed algorithm. The correlation coefficient of the SI of the phantom of the gray matter between actual and simulation measurements was r=0.997. The SI obtained by actual measurements well correlated with the SI obtained by the simulation measurements. The WAIR and GAIR images in the volunteer were well enhanced gray or white matters. We thus conclude that it is possible to calculate the optimized parameters for the DIR-MRI using the developed algorithm.