Accelerated<i>T</i>₂mapping for characterization of prostate cancer

Abstract

Prostate T(2) mapping was performed in 34 consecutive patients using an accelerated multiecho spin-echo sequence with 4-fold k-space undersampling leading to a net acceleration factor of 3.3 on a 3T scanner. The mean T(2) values from the accelerated and conventional, unaccelerated sequences demonstrated a very high correlation (r = 0.99). Different prostate segments demonstrated similarly good interscan reproducibility (p = not significant) with slightly larger difference at base: 2.0% ± 1.6% for left base and 2.1% ± 1.1% for right base. In patients with subsequent targeted biopsy, T(2) values of histologically proven malignant tumor areas were significantly lower than the suspicious looking but nonmalignant lesions (p < 0.05) and normal areas (p < 0.001): 100 ± 10 ms for malignant tumors, 114 ± 23 ms for suspicious lesions and 149 ± 32 ms for normal tissues. The proposed method can provide an effective approach for accelerated T(2) quantification for prostate patients.