Ultrashort Echo Time Single Point Dixon Using 3D Phase Modeling

Fat signals can obscure morphological structures and influence quantitative parameter mapping in ultrashort echo time (UTE) musculoskeletal MRI. However, conventional fat suppression methods have challenges in UTE imaging of short T2 species. For example, the chemical-shift based fat saturation can significantly attenuate short T2 signals with broad spectra, and water excitation with long composite pulses may yield a long minimum echo time (TE). Alternatively, the feasibility of single-point Dixon (1p-Dixon) has been demonstrated for UTE imaging. In this study, we investigate the feasibility of 1p-Dixon based on the 3D phase modeling approach, which achieves fat suppression without additional data acquisition.