Radiological Technology, Graduate School of Health Sciences, Okayama University.
Radiology Diagnosis, Okayama Saiseikai General Hospital.
Acta Med Okayama. 2022 Jun;76(3):297-305. doi: 10.18926/AMO/63739.
Clinical research using restricted diffusion-weighted imaging, especially diffusion kurtosis (DK) imaging, has been progressing, with reports on its effectiveness in the diagnostic imaging of cerebral infarctions, neurodegenerative diseases, and tumors, among others. However, the application of DK imaging in daily clinical practice has not spread because of the long imaging time required and the use of specific software for image creation. Herein, with the aim of promoting clinical research using DK imaging at any medical facility, we evaluated fast DK imaging using a new software program. We developed a new macro program that produces DK images using general-purpose, inexpensive software (Microsoft Excel and ImageJ), and we evaluated fast DK imaging using bio-phantoms and a healthy volunteer in clinical trials. The DK images created by the new software with diffusion-weighted images captured with short-time imaging sequences were similar to the original DK images captured with long-time imaging sequences. The DK images using three b-values, which can reduce the imaging time by 43%, were equivalent to the DK images using five b-values. The DK imaging technique developed herein might allow any medical facility to increase its daily clinical use of DK imaging and easily conduct clinical research.
临床研究使用限制扩散加权成像，特别是扩散峰度（DK）成像，一直在进展，有报告称其在脑梗死、神经退行性疾病和肿瘤等疾病的诊断成像中有效果。然而，由于所需的成像时间长和创建图像需要特定软件，DK 成像在日常临床实践中的应用并没有普及。在此，我们旨在促进任何医疗设施使用 DK 成像进行临床研究，评估了使用新软件程序的快速 DK 成像。我们开发了一个新的宏程序，该程序使用通用、廉价的软件（Microsoft Excel 和 ImageJ）生成 DK 图像，并在临床试验中使用生物仿体和健康志愿者评估了快速 DK 成像。使用短时间成像序列采集的扩散加权图像生成的新软件的 DK 图像与使用长时间成像序列采集的原始 DK 图像相似。使用三个 b 值（可将成像时间减少 43%）的 DK 图像与使用五个 b 值的 DK 图像等效。本研究开发的 DK 成像技术可能使任何医疗设施增加日常 DK 成像的临床应用，并能方便地开展临床研究。
