Ultrafast near-isotropic spatial resolution 3D balanced-SSFP Dixon imaging in the breast

INTRODUCTION: T2 imaging in the breast is most commonly performed using a fat suppressed 2D Fast Spin Echo (FSE) pulse sequence. The in-plane spatial resolution is high (<1mm) but the 3-4 mm slice thickness blurs fine structures and makes multi-planar reformatting sub-optimal. Balanced steady-state free precession (b-SSFP) techniques yield high SNR images in short scan times with a T2-like (T2/T1) image contrast. They have been explored for lesion characterization in the liver and, more recently, in the breast [1]. However, b-SSFP sequences are very sensitive to B0 inhomogeneities, manifesting as banding artifacts and posing major challenges to robust fat suppression in the breast and at high field strengths. We investigated a new 3D technique that combines balanced steady-state free precession imaging with a two-point Dixon fat-water reconstruction algorithm [2] for robust fat-separated volumetric imaging of the breast with near isotropic spatial resolution in short scan times.