{"doi":"10.1002/mp.18039","title":"3D magnetization‐prepared rapid gradient echo with a RF saturation band on a compact 3T scanner","abstract":"BACKGROUND: Flow-related ghost artifact from a 3D Magnetization Prepared Rapid Gradient Echo (MPRAGE) sequence results from unsaturated magnetization of incoming arterial flow. This is especially common on MR scanners equipped with smaller radiofrequency (RF) transmit coils. A high-performance compact 3T (C3T) scanner features a smaller RF-transmit coil (inner diameter 37 cm, length 40 cm), leading to a rapid fall-off of the B1 field below the neck. This configuration results in more intense flow-related ghost artifacts, especially in younger patients. PURPOSE: The C3T scanner's smaller RF-transmit coil provides RF field coverage over the brain region, causing bright in-flow arterial signals and flow-related artifacts in the conventional 3D-MPRAGE scans. The purpose of this study is to suppress these artifacts by adding a RF saturation band (RFSB) pulses to the 3D-MPRAGE sequence. METHODS: The RFSB was added to the 3D-MPRAGE sequence as a preparation pulse option. To test the effectiveness, 37 subjects were scanned on the C3T under an IRB-approved protocol using 3D-MPRAGE with and without RFSB. Ten of those subjects underwent repeated scans with and without RFSB to evaluate test-retest reliability. A consensus evaluation by two neuroradiologists was performed on all data to compare signal to noise ratio, image contrast, presence of artifacts, and diagnostic confidence. Quantitative analysis included calculating test-retest differences by image subtraction and evaluating the variance in flow-artifact-induced image intensity between the scans with and without RFSB. Additionally, one subject was scanned on a whole-body 3T scanner using a transmit/receive (T/R) head coil to demonstrate the method's applicability across different MRI platforms as a proof of concept. RESULTS: The Wilcoxon signed-rank test of the neuroradiologist evaluations showed a significant reduction in artifacts and an improvement in diagnostic confidence in the posterior fossa region with and without RFSB (p < 0.0001). Test-retest analysis showed that adding RFSB significantly reduced image intensity variability in the cerebellum, even among subjects without visible flow artifacts. The normalized difference decreased from 8.71% to 6.41% (p = 0.0059), suggesting improved image reliability in regions prone to flow-related artifacts. Additionally, similar findings were observed in scans on a whole-body 3T with a T/R head coil, demonstrating the broader applicability of this method. CONCLUSION: Incorporating RFSB into 3D-MPRAGE scans effectively reduces flow-related ghost artifact on the C3T scanner, improving image quality and diagnostic confidence. These findings suggest that the proposed method could be widely implemented across MRI systems utilizing a smaller RF-transmit coil.","journal":"Medical Physics","year":2025,"id":572221,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9592,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":432233,"name":"Daehun Kang","orcid":"0000-0003-3792-3303","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432234,"name":"Myung‐Ho In","orcid":"0000-0001-8001-6237","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":414063,"name":"Norbert G. Campeau","orcid":"0000-0002-0688-5781","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":381140,"name":"John Huston","orcid":"0000-0003-0584-9460","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":253784,"name":"Joshua D. Trzasko","orcid":"0000-0001-8180-5449","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1155441,"name":"Maria Halverson","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":433211,"name":"Erin M. Gray","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":397791,"name":"David O. Warner","orcid":"0000-0002-0365-2536","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":226056,"name":"Matt A. Bernstein","orcid":"0000-0003-3770-0441","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432238,"name":"Yunhong Shu","orcid":"0000-0002-7521-9088","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":432237,"name":"Lydia J. Bardwell Speltz","orcid":"0000-0003-4940-4148","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":8,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:57:23.653298Z","pmid":"40804787","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}