The standard method for measuring the slice thickness of magnetic resonance images uses the inclined surface of a wedge (wedge method)
it is sensitive to small increases in noise because of the differentiation of the edge response function (ERF) required. The purpose of this study was to improve the wedge method by fitting a curve to the ERF. The curve-fit function was obtained by convolving an ideal ERF (a ramp function) with a Gaussian function to represent ERF blurring. Measurements of 5- and 3-mm slice thicknesses were performed on a 3T scanner using the conventional wedge method, the improved wedge method, and another standard method using an inclined slab (slab method). Subsequently, 0.5- and 0.25-mm slice thicknesses from multiple slices acquired using a three-dimensional sequence were measured using the improved wedge method. When measuring 5-mm slices, the differences in measurements obtained using the improved wedge method and the conventional slab and wedge methods were very small: &lt
0.6% of the 5-mm slice thickness. The difference was ≤1.7% for 3-mm slices. For 0.5- and 0.25-mm slices, the mean values obtained using the improved wedge method were 0.543 ± 0.007 mm and 0.247 ± 0.015 mm, with a 1.2 and 5.9% coefficient of variation across slices, respectively. The improved wedge method is valid and potentially applicable to the measurement of sub-millimeter slice thicknesses.