Division of Body Imaging, Department of Radiology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, 3401 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Abdom Radiol (NY). 2019 Mar;44(3):894-902. doi: 10.1007/s00261-018-1884-6.
The goal of our study is to compare hepatic stiffness measures using gradient-recalled echo (GRE) versus spin-echo echo planar imaging (SE-EPI)-based MR Elastography (MRE) at 3T used to measure hepatic stiffness in a patients with suspected liver diseases.
This retrospective study included 52 patients with liver disease who underwent a 3T MRE exam including both an investigational SE-EPI-based technique and a product GRE-based technique. Regions of interest (ROI) were placed on the elastograms to measure elastography-derived liver stiffness as well as the area included within the ROIs. The mean liver stiffness values and area of ROIs were compared.
The mean liver stiffness was 3.72 kilopascal (kPa) ± 1.29 using GRE MRE and 3.78 kPa ± 1.13 using SE-EPI MRE. Measurement of liver stiffness showed excellent agreement between the two pulse sequences with a mean bias of - 0.1 kPa (range - 1.8 to 1.7 kPa) between sequences. The mean measurable ROI area was higher with SE-EPI (313.8 cm ± 213.8) than with the GRE technique (208.6 cm ± 114.8), and the difference was statistically significant (P < 0.05).
Our data shows excellent agreement of measured liver stiffness between GRE and SE-EPI-based sequences at 3T. Our results show the advantage of a SE-EPI MRE sequence in terms of image quality, ROI size and acquisition time with equivalent liver stiffness measurements as compared to GRE-MRE sequence.
我们研究的目的是比较梯度回波（GRE）和基于自旋回波的 echo 平面成像（SE-EPI）的磁共振弹性成像（MRE）在 3T 下测量疑似肝脏疾病患者肝硬度的方法。
本回顾性研究纳入了 52 例肝脏疾病患者，这些患者接受了 3T MRE 检查，包括研究性 SE-EPI 技术和产品 GRE 技术。在弹性图上放置感兴趣区（ROI），以测量弹性成像衍生的肝硬度以及 ROI 内的面积。比较了两种技术的平均肝硬度值和 ROI 面积。
使用 GRE MRE 测量的平均肝硬度为 3.72 千帕（kPa）±1.29，使用 SE-EPI MRE 测量的平均肝硬度为 3.78 kPa±1.13。两种脉冲序列之间的肝硬度测量具有极好的一致性，序列之间的平均偏差为 -0.1 kPa（范围为-1.8 至 1.7 kPa）。SE-EPI 的可测量 ROI 面积（313.8 cm±213.8）高于 GRE 技术（208.6 cm±114.8），差异具有统计学意义（P<0.05）。
我们的数据表明，在 3T 下，GRE 和基于 SE-EPI 的序列测量的肝硬度具有极好的一致性。与 GRE-MRE 序列相比，我们的结果表明，SE-EPI MRE 序列在图像质量、ROI 大小和采集时间方面具有优势，并且可以获得与 GRE-MRE 序列相同的肝硬度测量值。
