Fast spin-echo triple-echo Dixon: Initial clinical experience with a novel pulse sequence for fat-suppressed T2-weighted abdominal MR imaging

Purpose To evaluate a prototype fast spin echo (FSE) triple‐echo‐Dixon (fTED) technique for breath‐hold, fat‐suppressed, T2‐weighted abdominal imaging. Materials and Methods Forty patients underwent breath‐hold T2‐weighted abdominal imaging with fTED and conventional fast recovery (FR) FSE with chemical shift‐selective saturation (CHESS). FRFSE and fTED images were compared for overall image quality, homogeneity of fat suppression, image sharpness, anatomic detail, and phase artifact. Depiction of disease was recorded separately for FRFSE and fTED images. Results FTED successfully reconstructed water‐only and fat‐only images from source images in all 40 cases. Water and fat separation was perfect in 36 (0.90) patients. Homogeneity of fat suppression was superior on the fTED images in 38 (0.95) of 40 cases. FTED images showed better anatomic detail in 27 (0.68), and less susceptibility artifact in 20 (0.50). FRFSE images showed less vascular pulsation artifact in 30 (0.75) cases, and less phase artifact in 21 (0.53) cases. There was no difference in depiction of disease for FRFSE and fTED images. Conclusion FTED is a robust sequence providing breath‐hold T2‐weighted images with superior fat suppression, excellent image quality, and at least equal depiction of disease compared to conventional breath‐hold T2‐weighted FRFSE imaging. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2009;30:569–577. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.