Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan.
Eur J Radiol. 2022 May;150:110271. doi: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2022.110271. Epub 2022 Mar 19.
A newly developed Adaptive Image Receive (AIR) coil is designed to be more flexible to conform to the human body habitus, and may improve image quality by reducing the distance between the coil element and the imaging subject. This study evaluated the AIR coil's usefulness for liver MR imaging at 3.0 T in comparison with that of a conventional coil retrospectively.
The study population comprised 50 consecutive patients, who underwent follow-up liver MR examinations with a 3.0-T MR system using both an AIR coil and a conventional coil to evaluate hepatocellular carcinoma. Three-dimensional fat-suppressed T1-weighted gradient-echo images before and after injection of an MRI contrast agent, T2-weighted single-shot fast spin-echo (SSFSE) images, and diffusion-weighted (DW) images obtained with the AIR coil were compared with corresponding images obtained with the conventional coil. One radiologist measured signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs), while two other radiologists used a 3-point scale to independently assess subjective image noise, artifacts, signal uniformity, and overall image quality.
SNRs for the AIR coil were significantly higher than those for the conventional coil (P <.05). Subjective image noise for the AIR coil on pre- and postcontrast T1-weighted and DW images was lower than for the conventional coil for both readers (P <.05). Overall image quality on pre- and postcontrast T1-weighted and DW images for the AIR coil was better than that for the conventional coil for at least one reader (P <.05).
In comparison with the conventional coil, AIR coil improved SNR and image quality of liver MR imaging.
新开发的自适应接收（AIR）线圈设计更灵活，可贴合人体形态，通过减少线圈元件与成像对象之间的距离，从而可能改善图像质量。本研究通过回顾性比较，评估了 AIR 线圈在 3.0T 磁共振成像（MRI）中用于肝脏成像的实用性。
该研究纳入了 50 例连续患者，他们在 3.0T MR 系统上使用 AIR 线圈和常规线圈进行了后续肝脏 MRI 检查，以评估肝细胞癌。比较了使用 AIR 线圈获得的三维脂肪抑制 T1 加权梯度回波（GRE）图像、注射 MRI 造影剂前后的 T2 加权单次激发快速自旋回波（SSFSE）图像以及扩散加权（DW）图像，与使用常规线圈获得的相应图像。一位放射科医生测量了信噪比（SNR），而另外两位放射科医生则使用 3 分制独立评估了主观图像噪声、伪影、信号均匀性和整体图像质量。
AIR 线圈的 SNR 明显高于常规线圈（P<.05）。两位读者均认为，AIR 线圈在 T1 加权和 DW 图像的对比前后的主观图像噪声均低于常规线圈（P<.05）。AIR 线圈在 T1 加权和 DW 图像的对比前后的整体图像质量至少有一位读者认为优于常规线圈（P<.05）。
与常规线圈相比，AIR 线圈改善了肝脏 MRI 的 SNR 和图像质量。
