Inui Shohei, Kaneda Daita, Sakurai Keita, Uchida Yuto, Abe Osamu, Hashizume Yoshio
Department of Radiology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
Choju Medical Institute, Fukushimura Hospital, Toyohashi, Aichi, Japan.
Magn Reson Med Sci. 2025 Jan 1;24(1):103-111. doi: 10.2463/mrms.mp.2023-0093. Epub 2024 Jan 16.
Magnetization prepared rapid acquisition with gradient echo (MPRAGE) sequence is a gold-standard technique for voxel-based morphometry (VBM) because of high spatial resolution and excellent tissue contrast, especially between gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM). Despite its benefits, MPRAGE exhibits distinct challenge for VBM in some patients with neurological disease because of long scan time and motion artifacts. Speedily acquired localizer images may alleviate this problem. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of VBM using 3D Fast Low Angle Shot image captured for localizer (L3DFLASH).
Consecutive 13 patients with pathologically confirmed Alzheimer's disease (AD) (82 ± 9 years) and 21 healthy controls (HC) (79 ± 4 years) were included in this study. Whole-brain L3DFLASH and MPRAGE were captured and preprocessed using the Computational Anatomy Toolbox 12 (CAT12). Agreement with MPRAGE was evaluated for L3DFLASH using regional normalized volume for segmented brain areas. In addition to brain volume difference on VBM and Bland-Altman analysis, atrophic pattern of AD on VBM was evaluated using L3DFLASH and MPRAGE.
Acquisition time was 18 s for L3DFLASH and 288 s for MPRAGE. There was a slight systematic difference in all regional normalized volumes from L3DFLASH and MPRAGE. For the whole cohort, GM volume measured from MPRAGE was greater than that from L3DFLASH in most of the region on VBM. When AD and HC were compared, AD-related atrophic pattern was demonstrated in both L3DFLASH and MPRAGE on VBM, although the difference was noted in significant clusters between them.
Although systematic difference was noted in regional brain volume measured from L3DFLASH and MPRAGE, AD-related atrophic pattern was preserved in L3DFLASH on VBM. VBM, using speedily acquired localizer image, may provide limited but useful information for evaluating brain atrophy.
磁化准备快速梯度回波采集（MPRAGE）序列是基于体素的形态学测量（VBM）的金标准技术，因其具有高空间分辨率和出色的组织对比度，尤其是在灰质（GM）和白质（WM）之间。尽管有这些优点，但由于扫描时间长和运动伪影，MPRAGE在一些神经系统疾病患者的VBM中仍面临明显挑战。快速采集的定位图像可能会缓解这个问题。本研究旨在评估使用为定位器采集的三维快速低角度激发图像（L3DFLASH）进行VBM的可行性。
本研究纳入了13例经病理证实的阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者（82±9岁）和21名健康对照者（HC）（79±4岁）。使用计算解剖工具箱12（CAT12）对全脑L3DFLASH和MPRAGE进行采集和预处理。使用分割脑区的区域归一化体积评估L3DFLASH与MPRAGE的一致性。除了VBM上的脑体积差异和布兰德-奥特曼分析外，还使用L3DFLASH和MPRAGE评估了AD在VBM上的萎缩模式。
L3DFLASH的采集时间为18秒，MPRAGE的采集时间为288秒。L3DFLASH和MPRAGE的所有区域归一化体积存在轻微的系统差异。对于整个队列，在VBM的大多数区域，从MPRAGE测量的GM体积大于从L3DFLASH测量的GM体积。当比较AD组和HC组时，在VBM上L3DFLASH和MPRAGE均显示出与AD相关的萎缩模式，尽管两者之间在显著簇中存在差异。
尽管从L3DFLASH和MPRAGE测量的区域脑体积存在系统差异，但在VBM上L3DFLASH中保留了与AD相关的萎缩模式。使用快速采集的定位图像进行VBM可能为评估脑萎缩提供有限但有用的信息。
