Rusche Thilo, Breit Hanns-Christian, Bach Michael, Wasserthal Jakob, Gehweiler Julian, Manneck Sebastian, Lieb Johanna M, De Marchis Gian Marco, Psychogios Marios, Sporns Peter B
Department of Radiology, Clinic of Radiology & Nuclear Medicine, University Hospital of Basel, University of Basel, 4001 Basel, Switzerland.
Imamed Radiologie Nordwest AG, 4051 Basel, Switzerland.
J Clin Med. 2023 Feb 2;12(3):1179. doi: 10.3390/jcm12031179.
Accurate detection of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) on susceptibility-weighted (SWI) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is crucial for the characterization of many neurological diseases. Low-field MRI offers greater access at lower costs and lower infrastructural requirements, but also reduced susceptibility artifacts. We therefore evaluated the diagnostic performance for the detection of CMBs of a whole-body low-field MRI in a prospective cohort of suspected stroke patients compared to an established 1.5 T MRI.
A prospective scanner comparison was performed including 27 patients, of whom 3 patients were excluded because the time interval was >1 h between acquisition of the 1.5 T and 0.55 T MRI. All SWI sequences were assessed for the presence, number, and localization of CMBs by two neuroradiologists and additionally underwent a Likert rating with respect to image impression, resolution, noise, contrast, and diagnostic quality.
A total of 24 patients with a mean age of 74 years were included (11 female). Both readers detected the same number and localization of microbleeds in all 24 datasets (sensitivity and specificity 100%; interreader reliability ϰ = 1), with CMBs only being observed in 12 patients. Likert ratings of the sequences at both field strengths regarding overall image quality and diagnostic quality did not reveal significant differences between the 0.55 T and 1.5 T sequences ( = 0.942; = 0.672). For resolution and contrast, the 0.55 T sequences were even significantly superior ( < 0.0001; < 0.0003), whereas the 1.5 T sequences were significantly superior ( < 0.0001) regarding noise.
Low-field MRI at 0.55 T may have similar accuracy as 1.5 T scanners for the detection of microbleeds and thus may have great potential as a resource-efficient alternative in the near future.
在磁敏感加权（SWI）磁共振成像（MRI）上准确检测脑微出血（CMB）对于许多神经系统疾病的特征描述至关重要。低场MRI以较低成本和较低基础设施要求提供了更大的可及性，但也减少了磁敏感伪影。因此，我们在一组疑似中风患者的前瞻性队列中，将全身低场MRI检测CMB的诊断性能与已确立的1.5T MRI进行了比较。
进行了一项前瞻性扫描仪比较，纳入27例患者，其中3例因在采集1.5T和0.55T MRI之间的时间间隔>1小时而被排除。两名神经放射科医生对所有SWI序列进行了CMB的存在、数量和定位评估，并另外就图像印象、分辨率、噪声、对比度和诊断质量进行了李克特评分。
共纳入24例平均年龄74岁的患者（11例女性）。两位阅片者在所有24个数据集中检测到的微出血数量和定位相同（敏感性和特异性均为100%；阅片者间可靠性κ = 1），仅在12例患者中观察到CMB。在两种场强下，序列在整体图像质量和诊断质量方面的李克特评分显示0.55T和1.5T序列之间没有显著差异（P = 0.942；P = 0.672）。在分辨率和对比度方面，0.55T序列甚至显著更优（P < 0.0001；P < 0.0003），而在噪声方面，1.5T序列显著更优（P < 0.0001）。
0.55T的低场MRI在检测微出血方面可能具有与1.5T扫描仪相似的准确性，因此在不久的将来作为一种资源高效的替代方案可能具有巨大潜力。
