Quantitative T₂ mapping using accelerated 3D stack-of-spiral gradient echo readout

Purpose: To develop a rapid T₂ mapping protocol using optimized spiral acquisition, accelerated reconstruction, and model fitting. Materials and methods: A T₂-prepared stack-of-spiral gradient echo (GRE) pulse sequence was applied. A model-based approach joined with compressed sensing was compared with the two methods applied separately for accelerated reconstruction and T₂ mapping. A 2-parameter-weighted fitting method was compared with 2- or 3-parameter models for accurate T₂ estimation under the influences of noise and B₁ inhomogeneity. The performance was evaluated using both digital phantoms and healthy volunteers. Mitigating partial voluming with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) was also tested.