Full-scale vs. Abbreviated Sequences in MR Mammography

The best of both worlds

Clemens Kaiser, M.D.
Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, University Medical Center Mannheim, Germany

At University Hospital Mannheim, a 1.5T MAGNETOM Sola is being used for standard MR Mammography examinations. This scanner is equipped with the Turbo Suite Excelerate package that includes the Simultaneous Multi-Slice (SMS) acquisition technique. SMS can be used for TSE sequences as well as for diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and can also be combined with iPAT.

MR Mammography for clinical diagnostic routine was set up with the following protocols:

• 3 mm axial T2 TSE with iPAT 2 and SMS 2. TA: 1:36 min.
• 3 mm axial EPI Diffusion (b-values 50 s/mm² and 800 s/mm²) 3-scan trace with iPAT 2 and SMS 2. TA: 1:46 min.
• 1.5 mm axial T1 fl3d as dynamic series (1+5, 20s delay), with iPAT 3. TA: 6:21 min.

At our institution we are using an 18-channel BI Mammography coil; the program, however, may also be used with other (high-channel) MR Mammography coils with very similar or the same parameters.