Gray matter-white matter contrast on spin-echo T1-weighted images at 3 T and 1.5 T: a quantitative comparison study.

Discrepancies exist in the literature regarding contrast between gray and white matter on spin-echo (SE) T1-weighted MR imaging at 3 T. The present study quantitatively assessed differences in gray matter-white matter contrast on both single- and multi-slice SE T1-weighted imaging between 3 and 1.5 T. SE T1-weighted sequences with the same parameters at both 3 and 1.5 T were used. Contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) between gray and white matter (CNR(GM-WM)) was evaluated for both frontal lobes. To assess the effects of interslice gap, multi-slice images were obtained with both 0 and 25% interslice gap. Single-slice CNR(GM-WM) was higher at 3 T (17.66 +/- 2.68) than at 1.5 T (13.09 +/- 2.35; P < 0.001). No significant difference in CNR(GM-WM) of multi-slice images with 0% gap was noted between 3 and 1.5 T (3T, 8.61 +/- 2.55; 1.5T, 7.43 +/- 1.20; P > 0.05). Multi-slice CNR(GM-WM) with 25% gap was higher at 3T (12.47 +/- 3.31) than at 1.5 T (9.73 +/- 1.37; P < 0.001). CNR(GM-WM) reduction rate of multi-slice images with 0% gap compared with single-slice images was higher at 3T (0.47 +/- 0.13) than at 1.5 T (0.38 +/- 0.09; P = 0.02). CNR(GM-WM) on single-slice SE T1-weighted imaging and CNR(GM-WM) on multi-slice images with 25% interslice gap were better at 3 T than at 1.5 T. The influence of multi-slice imaging on CNR(GM-WM) was significantly larger at 3T than at 1.5 T.