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Creators/Authors contains: "Wilcox, Alison_G"

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  1. Abstract PurposeTo develop a robust single breath‐hold approach for volumetric lung imaging at 0.55T. MethodA balanced‐SSFP (bSSFP) pulse sequence with 3D stack‐of‐spiral (SoS) out‐in trajectory for volumetric lung imaging at 0.55T was implemented. With 2.7× undersampling, the pulse sequence enables imaging during a 17‐s breath‐hold. Image reconstruction is performed using 3D SPIRiT and 3D l1‐Wavelet regularizations. In two healthy volunteers, single breath‐hold SoS out‐in bSSFP was compared against stack‐of‐spiral UTE (spiral UTE) and half‐radial dual‐echo bSSFP (bSTAR), based on signal intensity (SI), blood‐lung parenchyma contrast, and image quality. In six patients with pathologies including lung nodules, fibrosis, emphysema, and air trapping, single breath‐hold SoS out‐in and bSTAR were compared against low‐dose computed tomography (LDCT). ResultsSoS out‐in bSSFP achieved 2‐mm isotropic resolution lung imaging with a single breath‐hold duration of 17 s. SoS out‐in (2‐mm isotropic) provided higher lung parenchyma and blood SI and blood‐lung parenchyma contrast compared to spiral UTE (2.4 × 2.4 × 2.5 mm3) and bSTAR (1.6‐mm isotropic). When comparing SI normalized by voxel size, SoS out‐in has lower lung parenchyma signal, higher blood signal, and a higher blood‐lung parenchyma contrast compared to bSTAR. In patients, SoS out‐in bSSFP was able to identify lung fibrosis and lung nodules of size 4 and 8 mm, and breath‐hold bSTAR was able to identify lung fibrosis and 8 mm nodules. ConclusionSingle breath‐hold volumetric lung imaging at 0.55T with 2‐mm isotropic spatial resolution is feasible using SoS out‐in bSSFP. This approach could be useful for rapid lung disease screening, and in cases where free‐breathing respiratory navigated approaches fail. 
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