Centre for Advanced Imaging, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.
Radiological Sciences Department, College of Applied Medical Sciences, Najran University, Najran, Saudi Arabia.
J Med Radiat Sci. 2021 Mar;68(1):4-12. doi: 10.1002/jmrs.433. Epub 2020 Sep 15.
High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the cervical spinal cord is important to provide accurate diagnosis and pathological assessment of injuries. MEDIC (Multiple Echo Data Image Combination) sequences have been used in clinical MRI; however, a comparison of the performance of 2D and 3D MEDIC for cervical spinal cord imaging has not been reported. The aim of this study is to compare axial 2D and 3D MEDIC for the visualisation of the grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) of the human cervical spinal cord.
Eight healthy participants were scanned using Siemens Prisma 3T MRI. T2*-weighted gradient spoiled 2D and 3D MEDIC sequences were acquired at 0.4 × 0.4 × 3.0 and 0.3 × 0.3 × 3.0 mm resolutions, with the acquisition times of 6 and 7 min, respectively. Quantitative analyses of the images were made based on the image signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and non-uniformity (NU). Two independent radiologists (CS and FN), each provided Likert scoring assessments of anatomical visibility of the GM and WM structures and image clarity for all samples.
Quantitative evaluation showed that 3D MEDIC provided higher SNR, higher CNR and lower NU than 2D MEDIC. However, 2D MEDIC provided better anatomical visibility for the GM, WM and CSF, and higher image clarity (lower artefacts) compared to 3D MEDIC.
2D MEDIC provides better information for depicting the internal structures of the cervical spinal cord compared to 3D MEDIC.
高分辨率磁共振成像（MRI）对颈椎脊髓的重要性在于提供准确的诊断和病理评估损伤。MEDIC（多回波数据图像组合）序列已用于临床 MRI；然而，尚未报道 2D 和 3D MEDIC 对颈椎脊髓成像的性能比较。本研究旨在比较轴向 2D 和 3D MEDIC 对人颈椎脊髓灰质（GM）和白质（WM）的可视化。
8 名健康参与者使用 Siemens Prisma 3T MRI 进行扫描。在 0.4×0.4×3.0 和 0.3×0.3×3.0mm 分辨率下采集 T2*-加权梯度扰相 2D 和 3D MEDIC 序列，采集时间分别为 6 分钟和 7 分钟。根据图像的信噪比（SNR）、对比噪声比（CNR）和不均匀性（NU）对图像进行定量分析。两位独立的放射科医生（CS 和 FN）分别对 GM 和 WM 结构的解剖可视性和所有样本的图像清晰度进行 Likert 评分评估。
定量评估显示，3D MEDIC 提供的 SNR、CNR 高于 2D MEDIC，NU 较低。然而，与 3D MEDIC 相比，2D MEDIC 提供了更好的 GM、WM 和 CSF 的解剖可视性，以及更高的图像清晰度（更低的伪影）。
与 3D MEDIC 相比，2D MEDIC 提供了更好的颈椎脊髓内部结构信息。
