An analysis of the accuracy of magnetic resonance flip angle measurement methods

Glen R. Morrell, Matthias C. Schabel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

53 Scopus citations

Abstract

Several methods of flip angle mapping for magnetic resonance imaging have been proposed. We evaluated the accuracy of five methods of flip angle measurement in the presence of measurement noise. Our analysis was performed in a closed form by propagation of probability density functions (PDFs). The flip angle mapping methods compared were (1) the phasesensitive method, (2) the dual-angle method using gradient recalled echoes (GRE), (3) an extended version of the GRE dual-angle method incorporating phase information, (4) the AFI method and (5) an extended version of the AFI method incorporating phase information. Our analysis took into account differences in required imaging time for these methods in the comparison of noise efficiency. PDFs of the flip angle estimate for each method for each value of true flip angle were calculated. These PDFs completely characterize the performance of each method. Mean bias and standard deviation were computed from these PDFs to more simply quantify the relative accuracy of each method over its range of measurable flip angles. We demonstrate that the phase-sensitive method provides the lowest mean bias and standard deviation of flip angle estimate of the five methods evaluated over a wide range of flip angles.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)6157-6174
Number of pages18
JournalPhysics in Medicine and Biology
Volume55
Issue number20
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 21 2010
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Radiological and Ultrasound Technology
  • Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging

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