Reiner C S, Neville A M, Nazeer H K, Breault S, Dale B M, Merkle E M, Bashir M R
Department of Radiology, Duke University Medical Center, Duke North - Room 1417, Erwin Road, Durham, NC, 27710, USA.
Eur Radiol. 2013 Nov;23(11):3087-93. doi: 10.1007/s00330-013-2910-2. Epub 2013 Jun 4.
Evaluate the image quality and diagnostic performance of a free-breathing 3D-gradient-echo sequence with radial acquisition (rGRE) compared with a Cartesian breath-hold 3D-GRE (cGRE) sequence on hepatobiliary phase MRI in patients with breath-holding difficulties.
Twenty-eight consecutive patients (15 males; mean age 61 ± 11.9 years) were analysed in this retrospective IRB-approved study. Breath-holding difficulties during gadoxetate-disodium-enhanced liver MRI manifested as breathing artefacts during dynamic-phase imaging. MRI included axial and coronal cGRE and a radially sampled rGRE sequence during the hepatobiliary phase. Two radiologists independently evaluated cGRE and rGRE images for image quality, liver lesion detection and conspicuity, and bile duct conspicuity on a four-point scale.
Liver edge sharpness was significantly higher on rGRE images (P < 0.001). Overall image quality was slightly but significantly higher for rGRE than for cGRE (P < 0.001 and P = 0.039). Bile duct conspicuity scores of rGRE and cGRE were not significantly different. Sensitivity for detection of the 26 liver lesions was similar for rGRE and cGRE (81-77 % and 73-77 %, P = 0.5 and 1.0). Lesion conspicuity scores were significantly higher for rGRE for one reader (P = 0.012).
In patients with breath-holding difficulties, overall image quality and liver lesion conspicuity on hepatobiliary phase MRI can be improved using the rGRE sequence.
• Patients with diminished breath-holding capacities present a major challenge in abdominal MRI. • A free-breathing sequence for hepatobiliary-phase MRI can improve image quality. • Further advances are needed to reduce acquisition time of the free-breathing gradient-echo sequence.
评估自由呼吸的三维梯度回波序列（径向采集，rGRE）与笛卡尔屏气三维梯度回波序列（cGRE）在屏气困难患者肝胆期磁共振成像（MRI）中的图像质量和诊断性能。
在这项经机构审查委员会批准的回顾性研究中，分析了连续28例患者（15例男性；平均年龄61±11.9岁）。钆塞酸二钠增强肝脏MRI检查期间的屏气困难表现为动态期成像时的呼吸伪影。MRI检查包括肝胆期的轴向和冠状面cGRE以及径向采样的rGRE序列。两名放射科医生独立地以四分制评估cGRE和rGRE图像的图像质量、肝脏病变的检测及清晰度以及胆管清晰度。
rGRE图像上肝脏边缘清晰度显著更高（P<0.001）。rGRE的整体图像质量略高于cGRE，但差异有统计学意义（P<0.001和P=0.0 — 39）。rGRE和cGRE的胆管清晰度评分无显著差异。rGRE和cGRE检测26个肝脏病变的敏感性相似（81% - 77%和73% - 77%，P=0.5和1.0）。对于一名读者，rGRE的病变清晰度评分显著更高（P=0.012）。
对于屏气困难的患者，使用rGRE序列可提高肝胆期MRI的整体图像质量和肝脏病变清晰度。
• 屏气能力减弱的患者在腹部MRI检查中是一个重大挑战。• 用于肝胆期MRI的自由呼吸序列可提高图像质量。• 需要进一步改进以减少自由呼吸梯度回波序列的采集时间。
