Examination of the optimal imaging parameters for intracranial vessel wall bone-like imaging using FRACTURE

Fast field echo resembling a CT using restricted echo-spacing (FRACTURE), which has been recently developed, has enabled visualization of calcification as well as cortical and spongy bones. However, it cannot be applied to intracranial vessel wall imaging due to insufficient suppression of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) signal and intra-arterial flow artifact. In this study, by performing scans of an original phantom and healthy volunteers, we reveal that the application of multi-chunk and magnetization transfer contrast pulse to FRACTURE can suppress CSF signal and intra-arterial flow artifact and that FRACTURE can be efficiently applied to vessel wall bone-like imaging.