Accelerating brain three-dimensional T2 fluid-attenuated inversion recovery using artificial intelligence-assisted compressed sensing: a comparison study with parallel imaging.

BACKGROUND

Shortening the acquisition time of brain three-dimensional T2 fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (3D T2 FLAIR) by using acceleration techniques has the potential to reduce motion artifacts in images and facilitate clinical application. This study aimed to assess the image quality of brain 3D T2 FLAIR accelerated by artificial intelligence-assisted compressed sensing (ACS) in comparison to 3D T2 FLAIR accelerated by parallel imaging (PI).

METHODS

In this prospective cohort study, 102 consecutive participants, including both healthy individuals and those with suspected brain diseases, were recruited and underwent both ACS- and PI-3D T2 FLAIR scans with a 3.0-Tesla magnetic resonance imaging system from February 2023 to October 2023 in Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University. Quantitative assessment involved white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM) signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), whole-image sharpness, and tumor volume. Qualitative assessment included the scoring of overall image quality, GM-WM border sharpness, and diagnostic confidence in lesion detection.

RESULTS

ACS-3D T2 FLAIR exhibited a shorter acquisition time compared to PI-3D T2 FLAIR (105 320 seconds). ACS-3D T2 FLAIR, compared to PI-3D T2 FLAIR, demonstrated a significantly higher mean SNR (25.922±6.811 22.544±5.853; P<0.001), SNR (18.324±7.137 17.102±6.659; P=0.049), CNR (4.613±1.547 4.160±1.552; P<0.001), and sharpness (0.413±0.049 0.396±0.034; P<0.001), while no significant differences were found for the overall image quality ratings (P=0.063) or GM-WM border sharpness ratings (P=0.125). A good agreement on tumor volume was achieved between ACS-3D T2 FLAIR and PI-3D T2 FLAIR images (intraclass correlation coefficient =0.999; 0.998-1.000; P<0.001). Images acquired with ACS demonstrated nearly equivalent diagnostic confidence to those obtained with PI (P>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The ACS technique offers a substantial reduction in scanning time for brain 3D T2 FLAIR compared to PI while maintaining good image quality and equivalent diagnostic confidence.