Stimulated echo based mapping (STEM) of T1, T2, and apparent diffusion coefficient: validation and protocol optimization

Abstract

Purpose: To present a stimulated-echo based mapping (STEM) approach for simultaneous T1, T2, and ADC mapping. Methods: Diffusion-weighted stimulated-echo images with various combinations of mixing time (TM), TE, and b-value were acquired to enable simultaneous mapping of T1, T2, and ADC. The proposed STEM method was performed by densely sampling the TM-TE-b space in a phantom and in brain and prostate of healthy volunteers. T1, T2, and ADC from STEM were compared to reference mapping methods. Additionally, protocol optimization was performed to enable rapid STEM acquisition within 2 min by sparsely sampling the TM-TE-b space. The T1, T2, and ADC measurements from rapid acquisitions were compared to the densely sampled STEM for evaluation. Finally, a patient with biopsy-proven high-risk prostate cancer was imaged to demonstrate the ability of STEM to differentiate cancer and healthy tissues. Results: Relative to the reference measurements, densely sampled STEM provided accurate quantitative T1, T2, and ADC mapping in phantoms (R2 = 0.999, slope between 0.97–1.03), as well as in brain and prostate. Further, the T1, T2, and ADC measurements from the optimized rapid STEM acquisitions agreed closely with densely sampled STEM. Finally, STEM showed decreased T2 and ADC in prostate cancer compared to healthy prostate tissue. Conclusion: STEM provides accurate simultaneous mapping of T1, T2, and ADC. This method may enable rapid and accurate multi-parametric tissue characterization for clinical and research applications.