Oner A Y, Tali T, Celikyay F, Celik A, Le Roux P
Department of Radiology, Gazi University School of Medicine, Besevler-Ankara, Turkey.
AJNR Am J Neuroradiol. 2007 Mar;28(3):575-80.
To prospectively evaluate the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement in diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) of the spine with the use of a newly developed non-Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (non-CPMG) single-shot fast spin-echo (SS-FSE) sequence and its effect on apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) measurements.
Twenty-four patients were enrolled after written informed consent. DWI of the spine was obtained with an echo-planar imaging (EPI)-based sequence followed by a non-CPMG SS-FSE technique. SNR and ADC values were measured over a lesion-free vertebral corpus. A quality score was assigned for each set of images to assess the image quality. When a spinal lesion was present, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and ADC were also measured. Student t tests were used for statistical analysis.
Mean SNR values were 5.83 +/- 2.2 and 11.68 +/- 2.87 for EPI and non-CPMG SS-FSE DWI, respectively. SNR values measured in DWI using parallel imaging were found to be significantly higher (P < .01). Mean ADCs of the spine were 0.53 +/- 0.15 and 0.35 +/- 0.15 x 10(-3) mm(2)/s for EPI and non-CPMG SS-FSE DWI, respectively. Quality scores were found to be higher for the non-CPMG SS-FSE DWI technique (P < .05). Overall lesion CNR was found to be higher in DWI with non-CPMG SS-FSE.
The non-CPMG SS-FSE technique provides a significant improvement to current EPI-based DWI of the spine. A study including a larger number of patients is required to determine the use of this DWI sequence as a supplementary tool to conventional MR imaging for increasing diagnostic confidence in spinal pathologic conditions.
前瞻性评估使用新开发的非Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill（非CPMG）单次激发快速自旋回波（SS-FSE）序列对脊柱扩散加权成像（DWI）信噪比（SNR）的改善及其对表观扩散系数（ADC）测量的影响。
24例患者在签署书面知情同意书后入组。采用基于回波平面成像（EPI）的序列及非CPMG SS-FSE技术获取脊柱的DWI图像。在无病变的椎体上测量SNR和ADC值。为每组图像指定质量评分以评估图像质量。当存在脊柱病变时，还测量对比噪声比（CNR）和ADC。采用学生t检验进行统计分析。
EPI和非CPMG SS-FSE DWI的平均SNR值分别为5.83±2.2和11.68±2.87。发现使用并行成像的DWI中测量的SNR值显著更高（P <.01）。EPI和非CPMG SS-FSE DWI的脊柱平均ADC分别为0.53±0.15和0.35±0.15×10⁻³ mm²/s。发现非CPMG SS-FSE DWI技术的质量评分更高（P <.05）。总体而言，非CPMG SS-FSE的DWI中病变CNR更高。
非CPMG SS-FSE技术显著改善了当前基于EPI的脊柱DWI。需要开展纳入更多患者的研究，以确定该DWI序列作为传统磁共振成像的补充工具在提高脊柱病理状况诊断信心方面的应用。
