Optimization of 3-D MP-RAGE sequences for structural brain imaging

An optimized MR sequence for structural three-dimensional brain scans is pr esented, giving good T-1 contrast and excellent white matter/gray matter se gmentation. Modification of the usual linear phase encoding order to centri c phase encoding restores the contrast loss, which usually occurs after mag netization preparation during the acquisition process when large volumes ar e imaged. The deleterious effects on the point-spread function are compensa ted by means of an appropriate k-space filter. RF coil inhomogeneities are corrected by means of shaped excitation pulses. High contrast-to-noise imag es of the entire brain with 1 mm isotropic resolution can be obtained in 12 min. The contrast-to-noise-ratio is about 100% higher than for sequences b ased on linear phase encoding. (C) 2000 Academic Press.