Lingering fat signals with CHESS in simultaneous imaging of both hands can be improved with rice pads in both 1.5 T and 3.0 T

ObjectivesTo investigate whether rice pads can eliminate lingering fat signals of the complex surface shape of both hands that occur with chemical shift selective (CHESS) at 1.5 T and 3.0 T.Materials and methodsT1-weighted images were obtained with CHESS using 1.5 T and 3.0 T systems. The same imaging parameters were used with and without rice pads on the coronal plane of both hands in 10 healthy volunteers. The fat-suppression effects were classified into four categories and scored for images, and visual evaluations were performed by one radiologist and one radiologic technologist.ResultsAt 1.5 T, the mean evaluation score was 1.55 for images obtained without rice pads and 3.50 for images obtained with rice pads. At 3.0 T, the mean evaluation score was 1.10 for images obtained without rice pads and 3.20 for images obtained with rice pads. With both systems, images obtained with the rice pads showed significantly better fat suppression effects than images obtained without rice pads (P < 0.0001, P < 0.0001).ConclusionsIt was confirmed that lingering fat signals are eliminated and good fat-suppressed images are obtained with the use of rice pads at 1.5 T and 3.0 T. Rice pads are therefore useful with at 1.5 T and 3.0 T, which are currently becoming more widely used.