Assländer, J. (2021). A Perspective on MR Fingerprinting. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, 53(3), 676–685. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmri.27134
This article reviews the basic concept of MR fingerprinting (MRF) with the goal of highlighting MRF's key contributions, putting them in the context of other quantitative MRI literature, and refining MRF's terminology. The article discusses the robustness and flexibility of MRF's signature dictionary-matching reconstruction along with more advanced MRF reconstructions. A key feature of MRF is the lack of assumptions about the signal evolution, which gives scientists the flexibility to tailor sequences for their needs. The article argues that the concept of unique fingerprints does not capture the requirements for successful parameter mapping and that an analysis of the signal's derivatives with respect to biophysical parameters, such as relaxation times, is more informative, as it allows one to evaluate the efficiency of a pulse sequence. The article points at the source of MRF's efficiency, namely, flip angle variations at the time scale of the relaxation times, and reveals that MRF's advantages are strongest at long scan times, as required for 3D imaging. Further, it outlines how MRF's flexibility can be used to design mutually tailored pulse sequences and biophysical models with the goal of improving the reproducibility of parameter mapping biological tissue.
Bipin Mehta, B., Coppo, S., Frances McGivney, D., Ian Hamilton, J., Chen, Y., Jiang, Y., Ma, D., Seiberlich, N., Gulani, V., & Alan Griswold, M. (2019). Magnetic resonance fingerprinting: A technical review. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, 81(1), 25–46. https://doi.org/10.1002/mrm.27403
Multiparametric quantitative imaging is gaining increasing interest due to its widespread advantages in clinical applications. Magnetic resonance fingerprinting is a recently introduced approach of fast multiparametric quantitative imaging. In this article, magnetic resonance fingerprinting acquisition, dictionary generation, reconstruction, and validation are reviewed.
Panda, A., Mehta, B. B., Coppo, S., Jiang, Y., Ma, D., Seiberlich, N., Griswold, M. A., & Gulani, V. (2017). Magnetic resonance fingerprinting – An overview. Current Opinion in Biomedical Engineering, 3, 56–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobme.2017.11.001
Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting (MRF) is a new approach to quantitative magnetic resonance imaging that allows simultaneous measurement of multiple tissue properties in a single, time-efficient acquisition. The ability to reproducibly and quantitatively measure tissue properties could enable more objective tissue diagnosis, comparisons of scans acquired at different locations and time points, longitudinal follow-up of individual patients and development of imaging biomarkers. This review provides a general overview of MRF technology, current preclinical and clinical applications and potential future directions. MRF has been initially evaluated in brain, prostate, liver, cardiac, musculoskeletal imaging, and measurement of perfusion and microvascular properties through MR vascular fingerprinting.