V irtually every cardiac imaging technique utilises contrast agents, yet the adoption of ultrasound contrast agents into the routine practice of echocardiography has been slow. The commercial and clinical promise of contrast echo has not yet been fulfilled and we are truly standing at the crossroad between success and failure of the technique. In this introductory article to the mini-symposium ...

A new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technique for simultaneous detection (SIDE) of changes in perfusion and blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) contrast is described. Perfusion contrast is generated by using magnetically labeled endogenous water proton spins as a freely diffusible tracer. A single slice-selective inversion pulse is combined with dual echo echo-planar imaging...

Introduction: In functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), acquisition parameters must balance the tradeoffs between spatial coverage and resolution, temporal resolution, and signal contrast. Blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) fMRI studies commonly employ a 2D multi-slice T2*-weighted echo-planar imaging (EPI) acquisition to capture changes in T2* decay due to BOLD signal fluctuation,...

PURPOSE To determine the value of the gradient- and spin-echo (GRASE) technique as compared with the fast spin-echo and conventional spin-echo techniques in MR imaging of the brain. METHODS Sixty-six patients with ischemic and neoplastic brain lesions were examined with T2-weighted spin-echo, fast spin-echo, and GRASE sequences. Three independent observers evaluated the contrast characteristi...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate a magnetization prepared-rapid gradient-echo (MP-RAGE) sequence as a three-dimensional T1-weighted MR imaging technique for staging urinary bladder cancer and to compare this technique with a commonly used two-dimensional T1-weighted spin-echo sequence technique. SUBJECTS AND METHODS For 28 consecutive patients with urinary bladder cancer, M...

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based on gradient echoes is used in a wide variety of imaging techniques and clinical applications. Gradient echo sequences form the basis for an essential group of imaging methods that find widespread use in clinical practice, particularly when fast imaging is important, as for example in cardiac MRI or contrast-enhanced MR angiography. However, the term "gradi...