Optimization of the magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo (MP-RAGE) sequence for 0.55 T

The MP-RAGE is the most commonly used sequence for structural brain imaging in clinical routine. Consequently, the optimization of imaging parameters for maximum contrast and signal is an important task. In this work, we implemented a previously developed computation and calculated optimal parameters for 0.55T. Additionally, the obtained images were compared with a gray-white matter contrast-optimized FLASH. Computing the contrast-to-noise ratio revealed a clear benefit for MP-RAGE over FLASH at mid to low resolutions, while a trend towards similar or even higher contrast-to-noise ratios for FLASH as compared to MP-RAGE at high resolutions was observed.