Fast magnetic resonance fingerprinting for dynamic contrast‐enhanced studies in mice

Purpose The goal of this study was to develop a fast MR fingerprinting (MRF) method for simultaneous T1 and T2 mapping in DCE‐MRI studies in mice. Methods The MRF sequences based on balanced SSFP and fast imaging with steady‐state precession were implemented and evaluated on a 7T preclinical scanner. The readout used a zeroth‐moment‐compensated variable‐density spiral trajectory that fully sampled the entire k‐space and the inner 10 × 10 k‐space with 48 and 4 interleaves, respectively. In vitro and in vivo studies of mouse brain were performed to evaluate the accuracy of MRF measurements with both fully sampled and undersampled data. The application of MRF to dynamic T1 and T2 mapping in DCE‐MRI studies were demonstrated in a mouse model of heterotopic glioblastoma using gadolinium‐based and dysprosium‐based contrast agents. Results The T1 and T2 measurements in phantom showed strong agreement between the MRF and the conventional methods. The MRF with spiral encoding allowed up to 8‐fold undersampling without loss of measurement accuracy. This enabled simultaneous T1 and T2 mapping with 2‐minute temporal resolution in DCE‐MRI studies. Conclusion Magnetic resonance fingerprinting provides the opportunity for dynamic quantification of contrast agent distribution in preclinical tumor models on high‐field MRI scanners.