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Versteeg E, Liu H, van der Heide O, Fuderer M, van den Berg CAT, Sbrizzi A. High SNR full brain relaxometry at 7T by accelerated MR-STAT. Magn Reson Med 2024; 92:226-235. [PMID: 38326909 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.30052] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/01/2023] [Revised: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 02/09/2024]
Abstract
PURPOSE To demonstrate the feasibility and robustness of the Magnetic Resonance Spin TomogrAphy in Time-domain (MR-STAT) framework for fast, high SNR relaxometry at 7T. METHODS To deploy MR-STAT on 7T-systems, we designed optimized flip-angles using the BLAKJac-framework that incorporates the SAR-constraints. Transmit RF-inhomogeneities were mitigated by including a measuredB 1 + $$ {B}_1^{+} $$ -map in the reconstruction. Experiments were performed on a gel-phantom and on five volunteers to explore the robustness of the sequence and its sensitivity toB 1 + $$ {B}_1^{+} $$ inhomogeneities. The SNR-gain at 7T was explored by comparing phantom and in vivo results to MR-STAT at 3T in terms of SNR-efficiency. RESULTS The higher SNR at 7T enabled two-fold acceleration with respect to current 2D MR-STAT protocols at lower field strengths. The resulting scan had whole-brain coverage, with 1 x 1 x 3 mm3 resolution (1.5 mm slice-gap) and was acquired within 3 min including theB 1 + $$ {B}_1^{+} $$ -mapping. AfterB 1 + $$ {B}_1^{+} $$ -correction, the estimated T1 and T2 in a phantom showed a mean relative error of, respectively, 1.7% and 4.4%. In vivo, the estimated T1 and T2 in gray and white matter corresponded to the range of values reported in literature with a variation over the subjects of 1.0%-2.1% (WM-GM) for T1 and 4.3%-5.3% (WM-GM) for T2. We measured a higher SNR-efficiency at 7T (R = 2) than at 3T for both T1 and T2 with, respectively, a 4.1 and 2.3 times increase in SNR-efficiency. CONCLUSION We presented an accelerated version of MR-STAT tailored to high field (7T) MRI using a low-SAR flip-angle train and showed high quality parameter maps with an increased SNR-efficiency compared to MR-STAT at 3T.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edwin Versteeg
- Computational Imaging Group, Department of Radiotherapy, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Hongyan Liu
- Computational Imaging Group, Department of Radiotherapy, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Oscar van der Heide
- Computational Imaging Group, Department of Radiotherapy, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Miha Fuderer
- Computational Imaging Group, Department of Radiotherapy, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Cornelis A T van den Berg
- Computational Imaging Group, Department of Radiotherapy, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - Alessandro Sbrizzi
- Computational Imaging Group, Department of Radiotherapy, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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de Zwart JA, van Gelderen P, Wang Y, Duyn JH. Accelerated multislice MRI with patterned excitation. Magn Reson Med 2024; 91:252-265. [PMID: 37769229 PMCID: PMC11342169 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.29850] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2023] [Revised: 08/14/2023] [Accepted: 08/15/2023] [Indexed: 09/30/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Accelerate multislice 2D MRI by using RF pulses that simultaneously act on different slices to combine contrast preparation and image acquisition. THEORY AND METHODS MRI applications often require the use of multiple RF pulses to generate desired contrast and prepare the signal for readout. Examples are the use of inversion prepulses to generate T1 contrast, or the use of spin-echo preparations to generate T2 or diffusion contrast. In multislice MRI, this separation of contrast preparation and readout can render scans time-inefficient and lengthy. We introduce a class of pulse sequences that overcomes this inefficiency by combining contrast preparation and signal readout. This is accomplished by using RF pulses that manipulate the magnetization of multiple slices simultaneously and a gradient crusher scheme that selects a target slice for readout. RESULTS Feasibility of the method was demonstrated for spin echo-based measurement of water diffusion and tissue pulsation in human brain at 3 T. Increases in time-efficiency and reductions in scan time were highly dependent on specific implementation and reached as high as 25% and 53%, respectively. CONCLUSION A novel approach to multislice MRI is demonstrated that reduces scan time for specific applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacco A de Zwart
- Advanced MRI section, Laboratory for Functional and Molecular Imaging, National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Peter van Gelderen
- Advanced MRI section, Laboratory for Functional and Molecular Imaging, National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Yicun Wang
- Advanced MRI section, Laboratory for Functional and Molecular Imaging, National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
| | - Jeff H Duyn
- Advanced MRI section, Laboratory for Functional and Molecular Imaging, National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA
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Ferizi U, Müller-Oehring EM, Peterson ET, Pohl KM. The distortions of the free water model for diffusion MRI data when assuming single compartment relaxometry and proton density. Phys Med Biol 2023; 68:10.1088/1361-6560/acb30b. [PMID: 36638532 PMCID: PMC10100575 DOI: 10.1088/1361-6560/acb30b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2022] [Accepted: 01/13/2023] [Indexed: 01/15/2023]
Abstract
Objective.To document the bias of thesimplifiedfree water model of diffusion MRI (dMRI) signal vis-à-vis aspecificmodel which, in addition to diffusion, incorporates compartment-specific proton density (PD), T1 recovery during repetition time (TR), and T2 decay during echo time (TE).Approach.Both models assume that volume fractionfof the total signal in any voxel arises from the free water compartment (fw) such as cerebrospinal fluid or edema, and the remainder (1-f) from hindered water (hw) which is constrained by cellular structures such as white matter (WM). Thespecificandsimplifiedmodels are compared on a synthetic dataset, using a range of PD, T1 and T2 values. We then fit the models to anin vivohealthy brain dMRI dataset. For bothsyntheticandin vivodata we use experimentally feasible TR, TE, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and physiologically plausible diffusion profiles.Main results.From the simulations we see that the difference between the estimatedsimplified fandspecific fis largest for mid-range ground-truthf, and it increases as SNR increases. The estimation of volume fractionfis sensitive to the choice of model,simplifiedorspecific, but the estimated diffusion parameters are robust to small perturbations in the simulation.Specific fis more accurate and precise thansimplified f. In the white matter (WM) regions of thein vivoimages,specific fis lower thansimplified f.Significance.In dMRI models for free water, accounting for compartment specific PD, T1 and T2, in addition to diffusion, improves the estimation of model parameters. This extra model specification attenuates the estimation bias of compartmental volume fraction without affecting the estimation of other diffusion parameters.
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Affiliation(s)
- Uran Ferizi
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States of America
| | - Eva M Müller-Oehring
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States of America
| | - Eric T Peterson
- Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, United States of America
| | - Kilian M Pohl
- Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, United States of America
- Center for Health Sciences, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, United States of America
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So S, Park HW, Kim B, Fritz FJ, Poser BA, Roebroeck A, Bilgic B. BUDA-MESMERISE: Rapid acquisition and unsupervised parameter estimation for T 1 , T 2 , M 0 , B 0 , and B 1 maps. Magn Reson Med 2022; 88:292-308. [PMID: 35344611 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.29228] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2021] [Revised: 02/21/2022] [Accepted: 02/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE Rapid acquisition scheme and parameter estimation method are proposed to acquire distortion-free spin- and stimulated-echo signals and combine the signals with a physics-driven unsupervised network to estimate T1 , T2 , and proton density (M0 ) parameter maps, along with B0 and B1 information from the acquired signals. THEORY AND METHODS An imaging sequence with three 90° RF pulses is utilized to acquire spin- and stimulated-echo signals. We utilize blip-up/-down acquisition to eliminate geometric distortion incurred by the effects of B0 inhomogeneity on rapid EPI acquisitions. For multislice imaging, echo-shifting is applied to utilize dead time between the second and third RF pulses to encode information from additional slice positions. To estimate parameter maps from the spin- and stimulated-echo signals with high fidelity, 2 estimation methods, analytic fitting and a novel unsupervised deep neural network method, are developed. RESULTS The proposed acquisition provided distortion-free T1 , T2 , relative proton density (M0), B0 , and B1 maps with high fidelity both in phantom and in vivo brain experiments. From the rapidly acquired spin- and stimulated-echo signals, analytic fitting and the network-based method were able to estimate T1 , T2 , M0 , B0 , and B1 maps with high accuracy. Network estimates demonstrated noise robustness owing to the fact that the convolutional layers take information into account from spatially adjacent voxels. CONCLUSION The proposed acquisition/reconstruction technique enabled whole-brain acquisition of coregistered, distortion-free, T1 , T2 , M0 , B0 , and B1 maps at 1 × 1 × 5 mm3 resolution in 50 s. The proposed unsupervised neural network provided noise-robust parameter estimates from this rapid acquisition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Seohee So
- School of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Hyun Wook Park
- School of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Byungjai Kim
- School of Electrical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, Republic of Korea
| | - Francisco J Fritz
- Institute of Systems Neuroscience, Center for Experimental Medicine, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE), Hamburg, Germany
| | - Benedikt A Poser
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Alard Roebroeck
- Department of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
| | - Berkin Bilgic
- Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA.,Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, Massachusetts, USA.,Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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Slator PJ, Palombo M, Miller KL, Westin C, Laun F, Kim D, Haldar JP, Benjamini D, Lemberskiy G, de Almeida Martins JP, Hutter J. Combined diffusion-relaxometry microstructure imaging: Current status and future prospects. Magn Reson Med 2021; 86:2987-3011. [PMID: 34411331 PMCID: PMC8568657 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.28963] [Citation(s) in RCA: 41] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/07/2020] [Revised: 06/25/2021] [Accepted: 07/20/2021] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Microstructure imaging seeks to noninvasively measure and map microscopic tissue features by pairing mathematical modeling with tailored MRI protocols. This article reviews an emerging paradigm that has the potential to provide a more detailed assessment of tissue microstructure-combined diffusion-relaxometry imaging. Combined diffusion-relaxometry acquisitions vary multiple MR contrast encodings-such as b-value, gradient direction, inversion time, and echo time-in a multidimensional acquisition space. When paired with suitable analysis techniques, this enables quantification of correlations and coupling between multiple MR parameters-such as diffusivity, T 1 , T 2 , and T 2 ∗ . This opens the possibility of disentangling multiple tissue compartments (within voxels) that are indistinguishable with single-contrast scans, enabling a new generation of microstructural maps with improved biological sensitivity and specificity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Paddy J. Slator
- Centre for Medical Image ComputingDepartment of Computer ScienceUniversity College LondonLondonUK
| | - Marco Palombo
- Centre for Medical Image ComputingDepartment of Computer ScienceUniversity College LondonLondonUK
| | - Karla L. Miller
- Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, FMRIB, Nuffield Department of Clinical NeurosciencesUniversity of OxfordOxfordUK
| | - Carl‐Fredrik Westin
- Department of RadiologyBrigham and Women’s HospitalHarvard Medical SchoolBostonMAUSA
| | - Frederik Laun
- Institute of RadiologyUniversity Hospital ErlangenFriedrich‐Alexander‐Universität Erlangen‐Nürnberg (FAU)ErlangenGermany
| | - Daeun Kim
- Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer EngineeringUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesCAUSA
- Signal and Image Processing InstituteUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesCAUSA
| | - Justin P. Haldar
- Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer EngineeringUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesCAUSA
- Signal and Image Processing InstituteUniversity of Southern CaliforniaLos AngelesCAUSA
| | - Dan Benjamini
- The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human DevelopmentBethesdaMDUSA
- The Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative MedicineUniformed Service University of the Health SciencesBethesdaMDUSA
| | | | - Joao P. de Almeida Martins
- Division of Physical Chemistry, Department of ChemistryLund UniversityLundSweden
- Department of Radiology and Nuclear MedicineSt. Olav’s University HospitalTrondheimNorway
| | - Jana Hutter
- Centre for Biomedical EngineeringSchool of Biomedical Engineering and ImagingKing’s College LondonLondonUK
- Centre for the Developing BrainSchool of Biomedical Engineering and ImagingKing’s College LondonLondonUK
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Englund EK, Reiter DA, Shahidi B, Sigmund EE. Intravoxel Incoherent Motion Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Skeletal Muscle: Review and Future Directions. J Magn Reson Imaging 2021; 55:988-1012. [PMID: 34390617 DOI: 10.1002/jmri.27875] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/18/2021] [Revised: 07/23/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Throughout the body, muscle structure and function can be interrogated using a variety of noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods. Recently, intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) MRI has gained momentum as a method to evaluate components of blood flow and tissue diffusion simultaneously. Much of the prior research has focused on highly vascularized organs, including the brain, kidney, and liver. Unique aspects of skeletal muscle, including the relatively low perfusion at rest and large dynamic range of perfusion between resting and maximal hyperemic states, may influence the acquisition, postprocessing, and interpretation of IVIM data. Here, we introduce several of those unique features of skeletal muscle; review existing studies of IVIM in skeletal muscle at rest, in response to exercise, and in disease states; and consider possible confounds that should be addressed for muscle-specific evaluations. Most studies used segmented nonlinear least squares fitting with a b-value threshold of 200 sec/mm2 to obtain IVIM parameters of perfusion fraction (f), pseudo-diffusion coefficient (D*), and diffusion coefficient (D). In healthy individuals, across all muscles, the average ± standard deviation of D was 1.46 ± 0.30 × 10-3 mm2 /sec, D* was 29.7 ± 38.1 × 10-3 mm2 /sec, and f was 11.1 ± 6.7%. Comparisons of reported IVIM parameters in muscles of the back, thigh, and leg of healthy individuals showed no significant difference between anatomic locations. Throughout the body, exercise elicited a positive change of all IVIM parameters. Future directions including advanced postprocessing models and potential sequence modifications are discussed. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 2.
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Affiliation(s)
- Erin K Englund
- Department of Radiology, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, Colorado, USA
| | - David A Reiter
- Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.,Department of Orthopedics, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
| | - Bahar Shahidi
- Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, UC San Diego, San Diego, California, USA
| | - Eric E Sigmund
- Department of Radiology, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, NYU Langone Health, New York, New York, USA.,Center for Advanced Imaging and Innovation (CAI2R), Bernard and Irene Schwarz Center for Biomedical Imaging (CBI), NYU Langone Health, New York, New York, USA
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