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Mackowiak ALC, Roy CW, Yerly J, Falcão MBL, Bacher M, Speier P, Piccini D, Stuber M, Bastiaansen JAM. Motion-resolved fat-fraction mapping with whole-heart free-running multiecho GRE and pilot tone. Magn Reson Med 2023. [PMID: 37103471 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.29680] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2022] [Revised: 03/24/2023] [Accepted: 04/05/2023] [Indexed: 04/28/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE To develop a free-running 3D radial whole-heart multiecho gradient echo (ME-GRE) framework for cardiac- and respiratory-motion-resolved fat fraction (FF) quantification. METHODS (NTE = 8) readouts optimized for water-fat separation and quantification were integrated within a continuous non-electrocardiogram-triggered free-breathing 3D radial GRE acquisition. Motion resolution was achieved with pilot tone (PT) navigation, and the extracted cardiac and respiratory signals were compared to those obtained with self-gating (SG). After extra-dimensional golden-angle radial sparse parallel-based image reconstruction, FF, R2 *, and B0 maps, as well as fat and water images were generated with a maximum-likelihood fitting algorithm. The framework was tested in a fat-water phantom and in 10 healthy volunteers at 1.5 T using NTE = 4 and NTE = 8 echoes. The separated images and maps were compared with a standard free-breathing electrocardiogram (ECG)-triggered acquisition. RESULTS The method was validated in vivo, and physiological motion was resolved over all collected echoes. Across volunteers, PT provided respiratory and cardiac signals in agreement (r = 0.91 and r = 0.72) with SG of the first echo, and a higher correlation to the ECG (0.1% of missed triggers for PT vs. 5.9% for SG). The framework enabled pericardial fat imaging and quantification throughout the cardiac cycle, revealing a decrease in FF at end-systole by 11.4% ± 3.1% across volunteers (p < 0.0001). Motion-resolved end-diastolic 3D FF maps showed good correlation with ECG-triggered measurements (FF bias of -1.06%). A significant difference in free-running FF measured with NTE = 4 and NTE = 8 was found (p < 0.0001 in sub-cutaneous fat and p < 0.01 in pericardial fat). CONCLUSION Free-running fat fraction mapping was validated at 1.5 T, enabling ME-GRE-based fat quantification with NTE = 8 echoes in 6:15 min.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adèle L C Mackowiak
- Department of Diagnostic, Interventional and Pediatric Radiology (DIPR), Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Translation Imaging Center (TIC), Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine, Bern, Switzerland
- Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Christopher W Roy
- Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jérôme Yerly
- Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Mariana B L Falcão
- Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Mario Bacher
- Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Erlangen, Germany
| | | | - Davide Piccini
- Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Advanced Clinical Imaging Technology (ACIT), Siemens Healthcare AG, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Matthias Stuber
- Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and University of Lausanne (UNIL), Lausanne, Switzerland
- Center for Biomedical Imaging (CIBM), Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Jessica A M Bastiaansen
- Department of Diagnostic, Interventional and Pediatric Radiology (DIPR), Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Translation Imaging Center (TIC), Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine, Bern, Switzerland
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Abstract
We developed an optimized and robust method to estimate liver B0 field inhomogeneity for monitoring and correcting susceptibility-induced geometric distortion in magnetic resonance images for precision therapy. A triple-gradient-echo acquisition was optimized for the whole liver B0 field estimation within a single-exhale breath-hold scan on a 3 T scanner. To eliminate chemical-shift artifacts, fat signals were chosen in-phase between 2 echoes with an echo time difference (ΔTE) of 2.3 milliseconds. To avoid phase-wrapping, other 2 echoes provided a large field dynamic range (1/ΔTE) to cover the B0 field inhomogeneity. In addition, using high parallel imaging factor of 4 and a readout-bandwidth of 1955 Hz/pixel, an ∼18-second acquisition time for breath-held scans was achieved. A 2-step, 1-dimensional regularized method for the ΔB0 field map estimation was developed, tested and validated in phantom and patient studies. Our method was validated on a water phantom with fat components and air pockets; it yielded ΔB0-field maps that had no chemical-shift and phase-wrapping artifacts, and it had a <0.5 mm of geometric distortion near the air pockets. The ΔB0-field maps of the patients' abdominal regions were also free from phase-wrapping and chemical-shift artifacts. The maximum field inhomogeneity was found near the lung–liver interface, up to ∼300 Hz, resulting in ∼2 mm of distortions in anatomical images with a readout-bandwidth of 440 Hz/pixel. The field mapping method in the abdominal region is robust; it can be easily integrated in clinical workflow for patient-based quality control of magnetic resonance imaging geometric integrity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonis Matakos
- Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
| | - James M Balter
- Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
| | - Yue Cao
- Department of Radiation Oncology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.,Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.,Department of Radiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
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