Huang Kai, Lin Xiaoxin, Luo Yaosheng, Hu Qiugen, Guo Baoliang, Ouyang Fusheng, Ouyang Yufeng, Song Cheng, Chen Haixiong
Department of Radiology, Shunde Hospital, Southern Medical University, Foshan, China.
Department of Endocrinology, Shunde Hospital, Southern Medical University, Foshan, China.
Front Med (Lausanne). 2023 Jul 12;10:1154828. doi: 10.3389/fmed.2023.1154828. eCollection 2023.
We aimed to compare two magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques, Dixon and spectral attenuated inversion recovery (SPAIR) fat-suppression, in terms of image quality and suitability for evaluating thyroid-associated ophthalmopathy (TAO) lesion characteristics.
This cross-sectional, retrospective study involved 70 patients with TAO (140 eyes) who underwent orbital coronal MRI examinations, including Dixon-transverse relaxation (T2)-weighted imaging (T2WI) and SPAIR-T2WI, between 2020 and 2022. We compared the fat-suppression quality and artifacts, noise (N), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), signal intensity ratio (SIR) of extraocular muscles (SIR-EOM) and lacrimal glands (SIR-LG), and TAO activity evaluation efficiency.
Dixon-T2WI showed a higher frequency of better subjective image quality and suitability for evaluating the characteristics of TAO lesions (65.7% vs. 14.3%) than SPAIR-T2WI. Fat-suppression quality and artifact scores were lower for Dixon-T2WI than for SPAIR-T2WI ( 0.001). The N, SNR, and CNR values, EOM-SIR, and LG-SIR were higher for orbital coronal Dixon-T2WI than for SPAIR-T2WI (all < 0.001). Clinical activity scores (CASs) showed positive correlations with SIR. The correlation between EOM-SIR and LG-SIR of orbital coronal Dixon-T2WI with CAS was higher than that of SPAIR-T2WI (0.590 vs. 0.493, all < 0.001; 0.340 vs. 0.295, all < 0.01). EOM-SIR and LG-SIR of Dixon-T2WI yielded a higher area under the curve than SPAIR-T2WI for evaluating TAO activity (0.865 vs. 0.760, < 0.001; 0.695 vs. 0.617, = 0.017).
Dixon-T2WI yields higher image quality than SPAIR-T2WI. Furthermore, it has a stronger ability to evaluate TAO inflammation than SPAIR, with higher sensitivity and specificity in active TAO staging.
我们旨在比较两种磁共振成像（MRI）技术，即狄克逊（Dixon）技术和频谱衰减反转恢复（SPAIR）脂肪抑制技术，在图像质量以及评估甲状腺相关眼病（TAO）病变特征的适用性方面的差异。
这项横断面回顾性研究纳入了70例TAO患者（140只眼），这些患者在2020年至2022年间接受了眼眶冠状位MRI检查，包括狄克逊横向弛豫（T2）加权成像（T2WI）和SPAIR-T2WI。我们比较了脂肪抑制质量和伪影、噪声（N）、信噪比（SNR）、对比噪声比（CNR）、眼外肌信号强度比（SIR-EOM）和泪腺信号强度比（SIR-LG），以及TAO活动评估效率。
与SPAIR-T2WI相比，狄克逊T2WI在主观图像质量更好以及更适合评估TAO病变特征方面的频率更高（65.7%对14.3%）。狄克逊T2WI的脂肪抑制质量和伪影评分低于SPAIR-T2WI（<0.001）。眼眶冠状位狄克逊T2WI的N、SNR和CNR值、EOM-SIR和LG-SIR高于SPAIR-T2WI（均<0.001）。临床活动评分（CASs）与SIR呈正相关。眼眶冠状位狄克逊T2WI的EOM-SIR和LG-SIR与CAS的相关性高于SPAIR-T2WI（分别为0.590对0.493，均<0.001；0.340对0.295，均<0.01）。在评估TAO活动方面，狄克逊T2WI的EOM-SIR和LG-SIR的曲线下面积高于SPAIR-T2WI（分别为0.865对0.760，<0.001；0.695对0.617，=0.017）。
狄克逊T2WI产生的图像质量高于SPAIR-T2WI。此外，它评估TAO炎症的能力比SPAIR更强，在活动性TAO分期中具有更高的敏感性和特异性。
