Huang Yujia, Chen Lin, Li Xu, Liu Jiaen
Advanced Imaging Research Center, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA.
F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, USA.
ArXiv. 2023 Aug 15:arXiv:2308.07811v1.
This study aimed to evaluate the potential of 3D echo-planar imaging (EPI) for improving the reliability of T*-weighted (Tw) data and quantification of * decay rate and susceptibility () compared to conventional gradient echo (GRE)-based acquisition. Eight healthy subjects in a wide age range were recruited. Each subject received repeated scans for both GRE and EPI acquisitions with an isotropic 1 mm resolution at 3 T. Maps of * and were quantified and compared using their inter-scan difference to evaluate the test-retest reliability. Inter-protocol differences of * and between GRE and EPI were also measured voxel by voxel and in selected ROIs to test the consistency between the two acquisition methods. The quantifications of * and using EPI protocols showed increased test-retest reliability with higher EPI factors up to 5 as performed in the experiment and were consistent with those based on GRE. This result suggested multi-shot multi-echo 3D EPI can be a useful alternative acquisition method for Tw MRI and quantification of * and with reduced scan time, improved test-retest reliability and similar accuracy compared to commonly used 3D GRE.
本研究旨在评估三维回波平面成像（EPI）相较于传统基于梯度回波（GRE）采集方式，在提高T加权（Tw）数据可靠性以及量化衰减率和磁化率（）方面的潜力。招募了8名年龄范围较广的健康受试者。每位受试者在3T场强下接受了各向同性1毫米分辨率的GRE和EPI重复扫描。通过扫描间差异对和的图谱进行量化和比较，以评估重测可靠性。还逐体素并在选定的感兴趣区域（ROI）测量GRE和EPI之间和的协议间差异，以测试两种采集方法之间的一致性。在实验中，使用EPI协议对和进行量化显示，随着EPI因子高达5的增加，重测可靠性提高，并且与基于GRE的结果一致。该结果表明，与常用的三维GRE相比，多激发多回波三维EPI可作为一种有用的替代采集方法用于Tw MRI以及和的量化，具有扫描时间缩短、重测可靠性提高和相似准确性的特点。
