SSFP serves as good start to abdominal MR exams

March 4, 2008 Diagnostic Imaging. SSFP serves as good start to abdominal MR exams James Brice -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The patient’s back pain was too severe to finish the MRI exam. Her conventional full MRI abdominal study was supposed to take 25 minutes, but—fortunately for her—she could tolerate lying in the scanner long enough to complete the protocol’s first sequence. Those five minutes were just enough time to complete the three-plane survey with a steady-state free precession pulse sequence. Her radiologist used it alone to diagnose her renal cell carcinoma. The case is hypothetical, but the benefits of SSFP in the abdomen are real. A study of 114 patients by Dr. Michael Dutka and colleagues at Thomas Jefferson Univers ity Hospital in Philadelphia has established the value of rapid surveys with SSFP at beginning of comprehensive abdominal MRI exams (JMRI 2008;27[1]:198-203).

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