Model-Based Reconstruction for Simultaneous Multi-Slice T1 Mapping using Single-Shot Inversion-Recovery Radial FLASH

Purpose: To develop a single-shot multi-slice T1 mapping method by combing simultaneous multi-slice (SMS) excitations, single-shot inversion-recovery (IR) radial fast low-angle shot (FLASH) and a nonlinear model-based reconstruction method. Methods: SMS excitations are combined with a single-shot IR radial FLASH sequence for data acquisition. A previously developed single-slice calibrationless model-based reconstruction is extended to SMS, formulating the estimation of parameter maps and coil sensitivities from all slices as a single nonlinear inverse problem. Joint-sparsity constraints are further applied to the parameter maps to improve T1 precision. Validations of the proposed method are performed for a phantom and for the human brain and liver in six healthy adult subjects. Results: Phantom results confirm good T1 accuracy and precision of the simultaneously acquired multi-slice T1 maps in comparison to single-slice references. In-vivo human brain studies demonstrate the better performance of SMS acquisitions compared to the conventional spoke-interleaved multi-slice acquisition using model-based reconstruction. Apart from good accuracy and precision, the results of six healthy subjects in both brain and abdominal studies confirm good repeatability between scan and re-scans. The proposed method can simultaneously acquire T1 maps for five slices of a human brain (\(0.75 \times 0.75 \times 5\) mm\(^3\)) or three slices of the abdomen (\(1.25 \times 1.25 \times 6\) mm\(^3\)) within four seconds. Conclusion: The IR SMS radial FLASH acquisition together with a non-linear model-based reconstruction enable rapid high-resolution multi-slice T1 mapping with good accuracy, precision, and repeatability.