Synopsis

Keywords: Physics & Engineering: Low-field MRI, Body: Body

MR is used only as a problem-solving tool in the abdomen due to availability issues. Hardware and software advances have allowed us to rethink the required minimum field strength. Lower baseline and sitting costs make low-field scanners a viable option for abdominal imaging with longer T2/T2*, lesser SAR penalty, and homogeneous magnetic fields. Optimizing sequences using parallel imaging and radial acquisition, we demonstrated comparable quality scores between 0.55T and 1.5T scanners, with an acquisition time of 10 minutes or less for non-contrast abdominal MR. Future applications include prostate cancer screening and 0.55T-optimized deep-learning sequences for T2 and DWI images.