Department of Neuroradiology, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, Arizona, USA.
Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
Magn Reson Med. 2024 Aug;92(2):631-644. doi: 10.1002/mrm.30077. Epub 2024 Mar 12.
Perfusion MRI reveals important tumor physiological and pathophysiologic information, making it a critical component in managing brain tumor patients. This study aimed to develop a dual-echo 3D spiral technique with a single-bolus scheme to simultaneously acquire both dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) data and overcome the limitations of current EPI-based techniques.
A 3D spiral-based technique with dual-echo acquisition was implemented and optimized on a 3T MRI scanner with a spiral staircase trajectory and through-plane SENSE acceleration for improved speed and image quality, in-plane variable-density undersampling combined with a sliding-window acquisition and reconstruction approach for increased speed, and an advanced iterative deblurring algorithm. Four volunteers were scanned and compared with the standard of care (SOC) single-echo EPI and a dual-echo EPI technique. Two patients were scanned with the spiral technique during a preload bolus and compared with the SOC single-echo EPI collected during the second bolus injection.
Volunteer data demonstrated that the spiral technique achieved high image quality, reduced geometric artifacts, and high temporal SNR compared with both single-echo and dual-echo EPI. Patient perfusion data showed that the spiral acquisition achieved accurate DSC quantification comparable to SOC single-echo dual-dose EPI, with the additional DCE information.
A 3D dual-echo spiral technique was developed to simultaneously acquire both DSC and DCE data in a single-bolus injection with reduced contrast use. Preliminary volunteer and patient data demonstrated increased temporal SNR, reduced geometric artifacts, and accurate perfusion quantification, suggesting a competitive alternative to SOC-EPI techniques for brain perfusion MRI.
灌注 MRI 揭示了重要的肿瘤生理和病理生理信息，使其成为管理脑肿瘤患者的关键组成部分。本研究旨在开发一种双回波 3D 螺旋技术，采用单次注射方案，同时获取动态对比敏感度（DSC）和动态对比增强（DCE）数据，克服当前基于 EPI 的技术的局限性。
在 3T MRI 扫描仪上实施了一种基于 3D 螺旋的双回波采集技术，并进行了优化，采用螺旋楼梯轨迹和平面内 SENSE 加速提高速度和图像质量，采用平面内变密度欠采样结合滑动窗口采集和重建方法提高速度，并采用先进的迭代去模糊算法。对 4 名志愿者进行了扫描，并与标准护理（SOC）单回波 EPI 和双回波 EPI 技术进行了比较。对 2 名患者在预加载推注期间使用螺旋技术进行了扫描，并与 SOC 单回波 EPI 在第二次推注期间采集的结果进行了比较。
志愿者数据表明，与单回波和双回波 EPI 相比，螺旋技术实现了高图像质量、减少几何伪影和高时间 SNR。患者灌注数据表明，螺旋采集实现了与 SOC 单回波双剂量 EPI 相当的准确 DSC 定量，同时提供了额外的 DCE 信息。
开发了一种 3D 双回波螺旋技术，可在单次注射中同时获取 DSC 和 DCE 数据，减少对比剂的使用。初步的志愿者和患者数据表明，该技术提高了时间 SNR、减少了几何伪影，并实现了准确的灌注定量，为脑灌注 MRI 提供了一种有竞争力的 SOC-EPI 技术替代方案。
