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Rapid, High-resolution and Distortion-free R₂^* Mapping of Fetal Brain using Multi-echo Radial FLASH and Model-based Reconstruction
Xiaoqing Wang, Hongli Fan, Zhengguo Tan, Serge Vasylechko, Edward Yang, Ryne Didier, Onur Afacan, Martin Uecker, Simon K. Warfield, Ali Gholipour
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Purpose: To develop a rapid, high-resolution and distortion-free technique for simultaneous water-fat separation, R₂^* and B₀ mapping of the fetal brain at 3T. Methods: A 2D multi-echo radial FLASH sequence with blip gradients is adapted for data acquisition during maternal free breathing. A calibrationless model-based reconstruction with sparsity constraints is developed to jointly estimate water, fat, R₂^* and B₀ field maps directly from k-space. This approach was validated and compared to reference methods using numerical and NIST phantoms and data from nine fetuses between 26 and 36 weeks of gestation age. Results: Both numerical and experimental phantom studies confirm good accuracy and precision. In fetal studies, model-based reconstruction yields quantitative R₂^* values in close agreement with those from a parallel imaging compressed sensing (PICS) technique using Graph Cut (intra-class correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.9601), while providing enhanced image detail. Repeated scans confirm good reproducibility (ICC = 0.9213). Compared to multi-echo EPI, the proposed radial technique produces higher-resolution (1.1 × 1.1 × 3 mm³ vs. 2-3 × 2-3 × 3 mm³) R₂^* maps with reduced distortion. Despite of differences in motion, resolution and distortion, R₂^* values are comparable between the two acquisition strategies (ICC = 0.8049). Additionally, the proposed approach enables synthesis of high-resolution and distortion-free R₂^*-weighted images. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the feasibility of using multi-echo radial FLASH combined with calibrationless model-based reconstruction for motion-robust, distortion-free R₂^* mapping of the fetal brain at 3T, achieving a nominal resolution of 1.1 ×1.1 ×3 mm³ within 2 seconds per slice.
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