Rapid 3-dimensional bilateral breast MR imaging

A, bilateral projection reconstruction method for simultaneous, three dimensional, dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging of paired bilateral sample volumes in an individual, the method simultaneously in both bilateral volumes comprising the steps of:

• introducing one or more contrast agents into the individual prior to acquiring MR data;
• applying MR spectroscopic settings to tune magnetic field uniformity;
• selectively inverting magnetization from adipose tissue;
• controlling simultaneously exciting magnetization from the identified bilateral volumes using double-side band modulation of an RF slab excitation pulse;
• acquiring high resolution MR data by interleaved radial acquisition for discontinuous volumes, using multi-coil arrays for signal separation, while under-sampling a number of slice phase encoding steps by a factor of 2;
• reconstructing in-plane encoded image signals from both volumes using dynamic k-space weighted image contrast (KWIC) temporal filtering;
• removing signal aliasing from one imaged volume to the other using SENSE processing in the slice direction to provide and display three dimensional morphologic images of both bilateral volumes;
• modeling contrast kinetics using a heuristic model;
• and
• displaying parameters from the heuristic model as color overlays on the displayed morphologic images.

A system for, bilateral projection reconstruction of simultaneous, three dimensional, dynamic contrast-enhanced MR imaging for paired bilateral sample volumes in an individual, comprising:

• an MRI device, wherein spectroscopic settings tune magnetic field uniformity and magnetization is selectively inverted;
• a double-side band modulator of an RF slab excitation pulse for simultaneously exciting magnetization from the bilateral volumes;
• multi-coil arrays for signal separation of data by interleaved radial acquisition for discontinuous volumes, while under-sampling a number of slice phase encoding steps by a factor of 2;
• means for dynamic k-space weighted image contrast (KWIC) temporal filtering to reconstruct in-plane encoded image signals from both volumes;
• means for using SENSE processing to remove signal aliasing from one imaged volume to the other in the slice direction to provide and to display three dimensional morphologic images of both bilateral volumes;
• and
• a heuristic model and means to apply the model to display contrast kinetics of the reconstructed image by displaying parameters from the heuristic model as color overlays on the displayed morphologic images.