Efficacy of the radial acquisition regime (RADAR) for acquiring head and neck MR images

Objective:To investigate the efficacy of the radial acquisition regime (RADAR) for acquiring head and neck MR images.Methods:15 healthy volunteers underwent imaging with 4 sequences [fast spin echo T2 weighted imaging (FSE-T2WI), RADAR T2 weighted imaging (RADAR-T2WI), single-shot echo planar imaging diffusion-weighted imaging (SS-EPI-DWI) and RADAR diffusion-weighted imaging (RADAR-DWI)]. Both standard images and images during periodic mouth motion were acquired. Two radiologists scored the overall image artefacts and detectability of several anatomical structures without knowledge of sequence type. For each sequence, image distortion was quantitatively compared by the anteroposterior to right–left ratio of several anatomical structures. The mean scores of artefacts and distortion of several anatomical structures were compared using the multiple comparison test. The detectabilities were compared using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.Results:Regardless of mouth motion, RADAR-T2WI was significantly superior ...