FAST 3-DIMENSIONAL SODIUM IMAGING

An efficient scheme for fast three dimensional acquisition of sodium M R images is described. This scheme relies on the use of three dimensio nal k-space trajectories with constant sample density to achieve signi ficant (60-70%) reductions in total data acquisition time over convent ional projection imaging schemes, The performance of this data acquisi tion scheme is demonstrated with acquisition of sodium data sets on ph antoms and normal human volunteers at 1.5 and 3.0 Tesla. The experimen tal results demonstrate that high quality three dimensional sodium ima ges (0.2 cc voxel size, 10:1 signal-to-noise ratio) can be acquired at clinical field strengths (1,5 Tesla) in under 10 min.