Biomedical subjects

Brian M Dale

Publications and source records attributed to Brian M Dale.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

MR liver imaging and cholangiography in the presence of surgical metallic clips at 1.5 and 3 Tesla.

To evaluate whether clips from prior cholecystectomy impair image quality during magnetic resonance cholangiography (MRC) at 3 Tesla (T) compared with 1.5 T, surgical clips were embedded in a gel phantom and positioned at predefined distances from a fluid-filled tube designed to simulate the bile duct. The maximum clip distance was noted where susceptibility artifacts obscured the fluid-filled tube at 1.5 T and 3 T. Susceptibility artifact size was calculated for each sequence within each magnet class. In vivo analysis included 42 patients postcholecystectomy who underwent MRC at either 1.5 T or 3 T. In vitro, mean area of susceptibility artifacts was 104 mm2 on 3-T and 75 mm2 on 1.5-T MR imaging (MRI). While surgical clips within a 2-mm range impaired visualization of the fluid-filled tube on 1.5-T MRI, this range increased to 4 mm on 3-T MRI. In vivo, MRC image quality was impaired by susceptibility artifacts in three of 21 cases at 3 T and in two of 21 cases at 1.5 T. Overall, biliary pseudo-obstructions due to susceptibility artifacts from cholecystectomy surgical clips were not substantially more common on 3-T MRC in clinical practice, and patients with a history of prior cholecystectomy should not be excluded from a 3-T MRC.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Blood attenuation with SSFP-compatible saturation (BASS).

PURPOSE: To investigate a rapid flow-suppression method for improving the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) between the vessel wall and the lumen for cardiovascular imaging applications. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this study a new dark-blood steady-state free precession (SSFP) sequence utilizing two excitation pulses per TR was developed. The first pulse is applied immediately adjacent to the slice of interest, while the second is a conventional slice-selective pulse designed to excite an SSFP signal for the static spins in the slice of interest. The slice-selective pulse is followed by fully refocused gradients along all three imaging axes over each TR. The signal amplitude (SA) from the moving spins excited by the "saturation" pulse is attenuated since they are not fully refocused at the TE. RESULTS: This work provides confirmation, by both simulation and experiments, that modest adaptations of the basic True-FISP structure can limit unwanted "bright blood" signal within the vessels while simultaneously preserving the contrast and speed advantages of this well-established rapid imaging method. CONCLUSION: Animal imaging trials confirm that dark-blood contrast is achieved with the BASS sequence, which substantially reverses the lumen-to-muscle CNR of a conventional True-FISP "bright blood" acquisition from 14.77 (bright blood) to -13.96 (dark blood) with a modest increase (24.2% of regular TR of SSFP for this implementation) in acquisition time to accommodate the additional slab-selective excitation pulse and gradient pulses.

Animals↗

PubMed2006

Abdominal magnetic resonance imaging at 3.0 T what is the ultimate gain in signal-to-noise ratio?

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to calculate the gain in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of four human abdominal tissues at 3.0 Tesla (T) compared with standard 1.5 T and to validate this calculation in vivo. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The expected gain in SNR at 3.0 T in the liver, pancreas, spleen, and kidney compared with standard 1.5 T was approximated theoretically for a T2-weighted HASTE (half-Fourier acquisition single-shot turbo spin-echo) and a T1-weighted gradient-echo in- and opposed-phase sequence. Fifteen healthy male subjects underwent abdominal MR imaging using a 1.5 T and 3.0 T scanner. Coronal T2-weighted HASTE images and axial T1-weighted gradient-echo in- and opposed-phase images were acquired using the sequence parameters optimized by the vendor. RESULTS: Except for opposed-phased imaging of pancreatic tissue, in vivo adjusted SNR values of all abdominal tissues were significantly higher at 3.0 T for all sequences (P < .05). The highest overall gain in SNR was achieved with the HASTE sequence ranging from 3.8-fold for renal imaging to 7.4-fold for hepatic imaging. The theoretical calculation of SNR gain was in good agreement with the experimentally measured gain in SNR for the HASTE and the in-phase sequence. CONCLUSION: High-field abdominal MR imaging at 3.0 T offers significantly higher SNR compared with standard 1.5 T MR imaging.

Abdomen↗

PubMed2006

Abdominal MR imaging at 3T.

Body MR imaging at 3T is in its infancy, and should improve substantially over the next several years. Radiologists need to be aware of several limitations that are based on the laws of physics: Overall, the gain in SNR at 3T will be less than twofold (without protocol alteration) compared with a standard 1.5T MR system because of the increase in T'I'1 at ultra high field. Typically, the gain in SNR is greater in T2-weighted sequences than in TI-weighted sequences, because longer TRs allow for a more complete recovery of the longitudinal magnetization, and T2 is independent of Bo. Thus, for example, patients who are referred for an MR cholangiography may benefit from an ultrahigh-field MR examination. Chemical shift artifacts of the first kind are twice as large in ultrahigh-field MR imaging compared with standard 1.5T MR imaging. Conversely, chemical shift artifacts of the second kind do not increase in size, although the timing is altered. The increased difference in resonant frequency between water and fat at 3T also is advantageous because it allows for a better separation of the fat and water peak during MR spectroscopy, and allows better or faster fat suppression using chemical shift techniques, such as fat saturation or water excitation. Susceptibility artifacts are approximately twice as large by volume on 3T MR imaging. Although patients who are referred for a "colon" study may be challenging at ultrahigh field, the search for "gas" (eg, free air or pneumobilia) should be easier. Patients with metal implants should undergo an MR examination at 3T only if the metal-containing device specifically has been proved to be MR safe at this field strength. Usually, standing wave and conductivity effects are not seen in body imaging at a field strength of 1.5T. At 3T, these artifacts are most pronounced in pregnant women in the sec-ond and third trimester, because of the large amount of conductive amniotic fluid and the increased size of the abdomen. Therefore, fetal MR imaging generally should not be performed at 3T because of these artifacts and the increased safety concerns. The same holds true for patients with a large amount of ascites, who also are not well suited for an ultrahigh-field MR examination. Except as noted above, most patients can undergo an abdominal MR imaging study at 3T with a reasonable outcome in terms of image quality.

Abdomen↗

PubMed2006

Abdominal MRI at 3.0 T: the basics revisited.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of our article is to describe the underlying physics concepts of abdominal MRI at 3.0 T and their impact on signal-to-noise ratio, susceptibility artifacts, chemical shift artifacts, and dielectric effects. CONCLUSION: Abdominal MR sequence protocols optimized for 1.5-T scanners should not be transferred to 3.0 T without substantial modification. In addition, specific patient groups--for example, large patients with ascites--are not well suited to undergo an abdominal MRI study at 3.0 T.

Abdomen↗

PubMed2005

Functional magnetic resonance imaging of the human lumbar spinal cord.

PURPOSE: To determine whether consistent regions of activity could be observed in the lumbar spinal cord of single subjects with spin-echo functional MRI (fMRI) if several repeated experiments were performed within a single imaging session. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Repeated fMRI experiments of the human lumbar spinal cord were performed at 1.5 T with a single-shot spin-echo technique (half-Fourier single-shot turbo spin-echo (HASTE)) as used by previous investigators, and a modified method (fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR)-HASTE) that nulled the otherwise highly variable signal from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). RESULTS: FLAIR-HASTE reduced the variability of the signal in the CSF region to background levels, and presumably reduced associated artifacts in the spinal cord. Consistent areas of activation in the spinal cord in response to a thermal stimulus just below the knee were not observed across the fMRI experiments with either method. CONCLUSION: FLAIR-HASTE was useful for removing artifact in the spinal cord signal induced by variability in the CSF signal. However, with the techniques used in this study, we were not able to confirm the presence of a consistent fMRI response in the lumbar spinal cord because of the signal enhancement by extravascular protons (SEEP) effect during thermal stimulation of the hindlimb.

Adult↗

PubMed2004

Optimal design of k-space trajectories using a multi-objective genetic algorithm.

Spiral, radial, and other nonrectilinear k-space trajectories are an area of active research in MRI due largely to their typically rapid acquisition times and benign artifact patterns. Trajectory design has commonly proceeded from a description of a simple shape to an investigation of its properties, because there is no general theory for the derivation of new trajectories with specific properties. Here such a generalized methodology is described. Specifically, a multi-objective genetic algorithm (GA) is used to design trajectories with beneficial flow and off-resonance properties. The algorithm converges to a well-defined optimal set with standard spiral trajectories on the rapid but low-quality end, and a new class of trajectories on the slower but high-quality end. The new trajectories all begin with nonzero gradient amplitude at the k-space origin, and curve gently outward relative to standard spirals. Improvements predicted in simulated imaging experiments were found to correlate well with improvements in actual experimental measures of image quality. The impact of deviations from the desired k-space trajectory is described, as is the impact of using different phantoms.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2003

Determining and optimizing the precision of quantitative measurements of perfusion from dynamic contrast enhanced MRI.

PURPOSE: To examine the sensitivity of quantitative dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) perfusion maps to errors in the various source images and to determine optimal imaging parameters for reducing this sensitivity. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A detailed analysis of the precision of a DCE-MRI protocol was performed using the "propagation of errors" technique to investigate the effect of errors in the source images on errors in K(trans). Optimal parameter values and interactions between parameters were examined. The propagation of errors analysis was validated by Monte-Carlo simulations. RESULTS: The precision of K(trans) was found to be most sensitive to artifacts in the tissue portion of the baseline images and least sensitive to noise in the arterial portion of the dynamic images. The tip-angle strongly affected the precision, with the optimum being a function of tissue T1(0). CONCLUSION: Protocol optimization requires matching the tip-angle to the anticipated T1(0) of the tissue of interest; however such optimization yields a relatively small improvement. Future developmental efforts would be most productively focused on minimizing the artifact level.

Artifacts↗

PubMed2003

Block regional off-resonance correction (BRORC): a fast and effective deblurring method for spiral imaging.

One primary disadvantage of spiral imaging is blurring artifact due to off-resonance effects. The conventional frequency segmented off-resonance correction method that is performed over the entire image is computationally intense due to the large number of fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) required. Here, a new fast off-resonance correction method, block regional off-resonance correction (BRORC), is presented. In this method, off-resonance correction proceeds block-by-block through the reconstructed image with FFTs performed on matrices that are smaller than the full image matrix. The BRORC algorithm is typically several times more computationally efficient than the conventional off-resonance correction algorithm. Additional computational reductions can be expected for the BRORC if only specific image regions require deblurring. The newly proposed off-resonance correction method offers significant speed advantages and equivalent image quality when compared to conventional off-resonance correction methods.

Algorithms↗