Clinical comparison of three-dimensional MP-RAGE and FLASH for MR imaging of the head

This paper evaluates three-dimensional (3D) magnetization-prepared rapid gradient-echo (MP RAGE) sequences in neurosurgical head MR imaging. The authors studied 14 patients with suspected intracranial disease with 3D MR RAGE (TR/TE/TI/FA/TReff = 10/4/500/10 degrees/ 3,000, BW = 195 Hz/pixel, 5.9-minute scan duration) at 1.5 T. In five we performed a statistical comparison with 3D fast low-angle (FLASH; TR/TE/FA = 40/5/50 degrees, BW = 260 Hz/pixel, 11.0-minute scan). Voxel dimensions (1.0 x 1.4 x 2.0 mm) were constant. The 3D MR RAGE images were diagnostically superior in a qualitative nonblinded reader evaluation. The contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of MP RAGE divided by the CNR of FLASH is 0.7 ± 0.2 with noise measured in a region unaffected by subject motion. With noise measured anterior to brain and anterior to mouth, this ratio was 1.4 ± 0.5 and 1.3 ± 0.5, respectively