MRI Artifact Reduction and Quality Improvement in the Upper Abdomen with PROPELLER and Prospective Acquisition Correction (PACE) Technique

OBJECTIVE. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the periodically rotated overlapping parallel lines with enhanced reconstruction (PROPELLER [BLADE in the MR systems from Siemens Medical Solutions]) with a respiratory compensation technique for motion correction, image noise reduction, improved sharpness of liver edge, and image quality of the upper abdomen. SUBJECTS AND METHODS. Twenty healthy adult volunteers with a mean age of 28 years (age range, 23-42 years) underwent upper abdominal MRI with a 1.5-T scanner. For each subject, fat-saturated T2-weighted turbo spin-echo (TSE) sequences with respiratory compensation (prospective acquisition correction [PACE]) were performed with and without the BLADE technique. Ghosting artifact, artifacts except ghosting artifact such as respiratory motion and bowel movement, sharpness of liver edge, image noise, and overall image quality were evaluated visually by three radiologists using a 5-point scale for qualitative analysis. The Wilcoxon's signed rank test was used to determine whether a significant difference existed between images with and without BLADE. A p value less than 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. RESULTS. In the BLADE images, image artifacts, sharpness of liver edge, image noise, and overall image quality were significantly improved (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION. With the BLADE technique, T2-weighted TSE images of the upper abdomen could provide reduced image artifacts including ghosting artifact and image noise and provide better image quality.