Pattern recognition for rapid T2 mapping with stimulated echo compensation

Indirect echoes (such as stimulated echoes) are a source of signal contamination in multi-echo spin-echo T2 quantification and can lead to T2 overestimation if a conventional exponential T2 decay model is assumed. Recently, nonlinear least square fitting of a slice-resolved extended phase graph (SEPG) signal model has been shown to provide accurate T2 estimates with indirect echo compensation. However, the iterative nonlinear least square fitting is computationally expensive and the T2 map generation time is long. In this work, we present a pattern recognition T2 mapping technique based on the SEPG model that can be performed with a single pre-computed dictionary for any arbitrary echo spacing. Almost identical T2 and B1 maps were obtained from in vivo data using the proposed technique compared to conventional iterative nonlinear least square fitting, while the computation time was reduced by more than 14-fold.