fig2

Figure 2. T2-weighted images for the rat bearing pancreatic head tumor. A: Isotropic 3D images are able to provide detailed anatomical information for rat abdomen. Common bile duct with full length is easily depicted from coronal view. Severe banding artifacts (arrows) are noticed from 3D TrueFISP images in area with air-tissue boundaries; B: compared to transversal image reconstructed from 3D SPACE, 2D TrueFISP images provide higher signal-to-noise-ratio. But in case that pancreatic head tumor is adjacent to colon, banding artifact would disrupt image signal around the tumor. FISP: fast imaging with steady state precession; C: colon; CBD: common bile duct; K: kidney; L: liver; Si: small intestine; St: stomach; T: tumor; arrow: susceptibility artifact; arrow head: duodenum