Magnetization-prepared shells trajectory with automated gradient waveform design

Purpose: To develop a fully automated trajectory and gradient waveform design for the non-Cartesian shells acquisition, and to develop a magnetization-prepared (MP) shells acquisition to achieve an efficient three-dimensional acquisition with improved gray-to-white brain matter contrast. Methods: After reviewing the shells k-space trajectory, a novel, fully automated trajectory design is developed that allows for gradient waveforms to be automatically generated for specified acquisition parameters. Designs for two types of shells are introduced, including fully sampled and undersampled/accelerated shells. Using those designs, an MP-Shells acquisition is developed by adjusting the acquisition order of shells interleaves to synchronize the center of k-space sampling with the peak of desired gray-to-white matter contrast. The feasibility of the proposed design and MP-Shells is demonstrated using simulation, phantom, and volunteer subject experiments, and the performance of MP-Shells is compared with a clinical Cartesian magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo acquisition. Results: Initial experiments show that MP-Shells produces excellent image quality with higher data acquisition efficiency and improved gray-to-white matter contrast-to-noise ratio (by 36%) compared with the conventional Cartesian magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo acquisition. Conclusion: We demonstrated the feasibility of a three-dimensional MP-Shells acquisition and an automated trajectory design to achieve an efficient acquisition with improved gray-to-white matter contrast. Magn Reson Med 79:2024–2035, 2018.