Fast T2-weighted MR imaging of the chest. Comparison of turbo spin echo, black-blood turbo spin echo and black-blood single-shot turbo spin echo sequences

In 40 patients with a diverse range of thoracic abnormalities, T2-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images of the chest were obtained with the three different sequences: electrocardiograph (ECG)-triggered turbo spin echo (TSE), ECG-triggered TSE with black-blood preparation (BB-TSE) and ECG-triggered half-Fourier single-shot TSE with black-blood preparation (BB-HASTE) sequences, and those images were compared qualitatively and quantitatively. In the qualitative analysis, for the overall image quality, the BB-TSE images were evidently better than the conventional TSE and BB-HASTE images. For being least influenced from blood signals, the BB-TSE and BB-HASTE images were remarkably better than the conventional TSE images. As far as ghosting is concerned the BB-HASTE images were significantly better than the conventional TSE and BB-TSE images. In the quantitative analysis, much higher lesion-to muscle contrast was obtained with the conventional TSE and BB-TSE sequences than with the BB-HASTE sequences. Lesion-to-fat and muscle-to-fat contrasts were significantly higher with both the BB-TSE and BB-HASTE sequences than with the conventional TSE sequences. In conclusion, BB-TSE imaging provides excellent T2-weighted images of the chest and BB-HASTE imaging provides images being free from motion artifacts and blood signals in a short scan time. (author)