Spiral 2D T2-Weighted TSE Brain MR Imaging: Initial Clinical Experience

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Spiral MR imaging may enable improved image quality and higher scan speeds than Cartesian trajectories. We sought to compare a novel spiral 2D T2-weighted TSE sequence with a conventional Cartesian and an artifact-robust, non-Cartesian sequence named MultiVane for routine clinical brain MR imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty-one patients were scanned with all 3 sequences (Cartesian, 4 minutes 14 seconds; MultiVane, 2 minutes 49 seconds; spiral, 2 minutes 12 seconds) on a standard clinical 1.5T MR scanner. Three readers described the presence and location of abnormalities and lesions and graded images qualitatively in terms of overall image quality, the presence of motion and pulsation artifacts, gray-white matter differentiation, lesion conspicuity, and subjective preference. Image quality was objectivized by measuring the SNR and the coefficients of variation for CSF, GM, and WM. RESULTS: Spiral achieved a scan time reduction of 51.9% and 21.9% compared with Cartesian and MultiVane, respectively. The number and location of lesions were identical among all sequences. As for the qualitative analysis, interreader agreement was high (Krippendorff α > .75). Spiral and MultiVane both outperformed the Cartesian sequence in terms of overall image quality, the presence of motion artifacts, and subjective preference (P < .001). In terms of the presence of pulsation artifacts, gray-white matter differentiation, and lesion conspicuity, all 3 sequences performed similarly well (P > .15). Spiral and MultiVane outperformed the Cartesian sequence in coefficient of variation WM and SNR (P < .01). CONCLUSIONS: Spiral 2D T2WI TSE is feasible for routine structural brain MR imaging and offers high-quality, artifact-robust brain imaging in short scan times.