Biomedical subjects

Huanzhou Yu

Publications and source records attributed to Huanzhou Yu.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

Articular cartilage of the knee: rapid three-dimensional MR imaging at 3.0 T with IDEAL balanced steady-state free precession--initial experience.

Institutional review board approval and informed consent were obtained for this HIPAA-compliant study. In this study, iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least-squares estimation (IDEAL) balanced steady-state free precession (bSSFP), fat-suppressed bSSFP, and fat-suppressed spoiled gradient-echo (GRE) sequences for 3.0-T magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of articular knee cartilage were prospectively compared in five healthy volunteers. Cartilage and fluid signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), cartilage-fluid contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), SNR efficiency, CNR efficiency, image quality, and fat suppression were compared. Fat-suppressed bSSFP and IDEAL bSSFP had higher SNR efficiency of cartilage (P < .01) than did GRE. IDEAL bSSFP had higher cartilage-fluid CNR efficiency than did fat-suppressed bSSFP or GRE (P < .01). Fat-suppressed bSSFP and IDEAL bSSFP had higher image quality than did GRE (P < .01). GRE and IDEAL bSSFP had significantly better fat-water separation or fat saturation than did fat-suppressed bSSFP (P < .05). IDEAL bSSFP is a promising method for imaging articular knee cartilage.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

Relaxation times of breast tissue at 1.5T and 3T measured using IDEAL.

PURPOSE: To accurately measure T1 and T2 of breast fibroglandular tissue and fat at 1.5T and 3T, and note the partial volume effects of the admixture of fibroglandular tissue and fat on the relaxation rates using an approach termed iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least squares estimation (IDEAL) imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS: T1 and T2 values were measured on the right breasts of five healthy women at 1.5T and 3T. T1 data were collected using two sequences: inversion recovery without IDEAL, and inversion recovery with IDEAL. T2 data were collected using Hahn Echo scans. SNR and CNR analyses were conducted on collected data. RESULTS: T1 increased for both fat (21%) and glandular tissue (17%) from 1.5T to 3T. Thus, the TR and TI of breast protocols at 3T should be lengthened accordingly. SNR more than doubled for both tissue types from 1.5T to 3T. IDEAL imaging demonstrated the partial volume effects of fat and glandular tissue on measuring relaxation rates of independent tissue types. CONCLUSION: With separated fat and water images, more precise measurements can be made for the lipid component in fat, and the water component in fibroglandular tissue.

Adult↗

PubMed2006

T1- and T2-weighted fast spin-echo imaging of the brachial plexus and cervical spine with IDEAL water-fat separation.

PURPOSE: To compare the iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least-squares estimation (IDEAL) method with fat-saturated T1-weighted (T1W) and T2W fast spin-echo (FSE) and short-TI inversion recovery (STIR) imaging of the brachial plexus and cervical spine. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Images acquired at 1.5T in five volunteers using fat-saturated T1W and T2W FSE imaging and STIR were compared with T1W and T2W IDEAL-FSE images. Examples of T1W and T2W IDEAL-FSE images acquired in patients are also shown. RESULTS: T1W and T2W IDEAL-FSE demonstrated superior fat suppression (P<0.05) and image quality (P<0.05), compared to T1W and T2W fat-saturated FSE, respectively. SNR performance of T1W-IDEAL-FSE was similar to T1W FSE in the spinal cord (P=0.250) and paraspinous muscles (P=0.78), while T2W IDEAL-FSE had superior SNR in muscle (P=0.02) and CSF (P=0.02), and marginally higher cord SNR (P=0.09). Compared to STIR, T2W IDEAL-FSE demonstrated superior image quality (P<0.05), comparable fat suppression (excellent, P=1.0), and higher SNR performance (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: IDEAL-FSE is a promising method for T1W and T2W imaging of the brachial plexus and cervical spine.

Adipose Tissue↗

PubMed2006

Single acquisition water-fat separation: feasibility study for dynamic imaging.

Water-fat separation can be challenging in the presence of field inhomogeneities. Three-point (3-pt) water-fat separation methods achieve robust performance by measuring and compensating for field inhomogeneities; however, they triple the scan time. The "1+-pt" water-fat separation method proposed in this article for dynamic or repetitive imaging situations combines 3-pt methods' ability to correct for field inhomogeneities with the scan efficiency of a single acquisition method to achieve high temporal and spatial resolutions and robust water-fat separation. Single-echo data are collected with water and fat at a relative phase shift of an odd multiple of pi/2. To correct for undesired phase modulation, phase maps are estimated from a 3-pt calibration scan acquired prior to dynamic imaging. The phase maps are assumed to be slowly varying in time, so they may be used for correcting the phase of the subsequent single-echo signals at the same imaging location. Noise performance was investigated and shown to be equivalent to a single excitation acquisition. The 1+-pt method can also be used in conjunction with parallel imaging. In this situation, the calibration scans required by both methods can be integrated into a shared calibration scan. Promising results were obtained in breast, abdominal, and cardiac imaging applications.

Abdomen↗

PubMed2006

Iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least-squares estimation (IDEAL) fast spin-echo imaging of the ankle: initial clinical experience.

OBJECTIVE: Reliable, uniform fat suppression is important. Multiple approaches currently exist, many of which suffer from either suboptimal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), or the inability to obtain consistent fat suppression around the ankle joint. Our purpose was to test iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and the least-squares estimation (IDEAL) method in combination with fast spin-echo imaging, which is able to achieve reliable high SNR images with uniform fat-water separation. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We compared IDEAL fast spin-echo with conventional fat-suppressed fast spin-echo imaging in 33 ankles in 32 patients. Quantitative measurements of SNR and contrast-to-noise ratio efficiency were made, and qualitative diagnostic image quality and fat-suppression scores were determined. RESULTS: We found that the SNR efficiency for both cartilage and fluid was similar for both techniques, and fluid/cartilage contrast-to-noise ratio efficiency was higher with IDEAL fast spin-echo imaging. Fat suppression and diagnostic quality scores using the IDEAL method were superior (p < 0.01) to fat-suppressed fast spin-echo imaging. CONCLUSION: IDEAL fast spin-echo imaging is a promising technique for MRI of the ankle.

Adipose Tissue↗

PubMed2005

Cardiac CINE imaging with IDEAL water-fat separation and steady-state free precession.

PURPOSE: To decompose multicoil CINE steady-state free precession (SSFP) cardiac images acquired at short echo time (TE) increments into separate water and fat images, using an iterative least-squares "Dixon" (IDEAL) method. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Multicoil CINE IDEAL-SSFP cardiac imaging was performed in three volunteers and 15 patients at 1.5 T. RESULTS: Measurements of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) matched theoretical expectations and were used to optimize acquisition parameters. TE increments of 0.9-1.0 msec permitted the use of repetition times (TRs) of 5 msec or less, and provided good SNR performance of the water-fat decomposition, while maintaining good image quality with a minimum of banding artifacts. Images from all studies were evaluated for fat separation and image quality by two experienced radiologists. Uniform fat separation and diagnostic image quality was achieved in all images from all studies. Examples from volunteers and patients are shown. CONCLUSION: Multicoil IDEAL-SSFP imaging can produce high quality CINE cardiac images with uniform water-fat separation, insensitive to Bo inhomogeneities. This approach provides a new method for reliable fat-suppression in cardiac imaging.

Adult↗

PubMed2005

Co-registration of x-ray and MR fields of view in a hybrid XMR system.

PURPOSE: To validate one possible function of a real-time x-ray/MR (XMR) interface in a hybrid XMR system using x-ray images as "scouts" to prescribe the MR slices. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The registration process consists of two steps: 1) calibration, in which the system's geometric parameters are found from fiducial-based registration; and 2) application, in which the x-ray image of a target structure and the estimated geometric parameters are used to prescribe an MR slice to observe the target structure. Errors from the noise in the location of the fiducial markers, and MR gradient nonlinearity were studied. Computer simulations were used to provide guidelines for fiducial marker placement and tolerable error estimation. A least-squares-based correction method was developed to reduce errors from gradient nonlinearity. RESULTS: In simulations with both sources of errors and the correction for gradient nonlinearity, the use of 16 fiducial markers yielded a mean error of about 0.4 mm over a 7200 cm(3) volume. Phantom scans showed that the prescribed target slice hit most of the target line, and that the length visualized was improved with the least-squares correction. CONCLUSION: The use of 16 fiducial markers to co-register XMR FOVs can offer satisfactory accuracy in both simulations and experiments.

Algorithms↗

PubMed2005

Homodyne reconstruction and IDEAL water-fat decomposition.

Multipoint water-fat separation methods have received renewed interest because they provide uniform separation of water and fat despite the presence of B0 and B1 field inhomogeneities. Unfortunately, full-resolution reconstruction of partial k-space acquisitions has been incompatible with these methods. Conventional homodyne reconstruction and related algorithms are commonly used to reconstruct partial k-space data sets by exploiting the Hermitian symmetry of k-space in order to maximize the spatial resolution of the image. In doing so, however, all phase information of the image is lost. The phase information of complex source images used in a water-fat separation acquisition is necessary to decompose water from fat. In this work, homodyne imaging is combined with the IDEAL (iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least squares estimation) method to reconstruct full resolution water and fat images free of blurring. This method is extended to multicoil steady-state free precession and fast spin-echo applications and examples are shown.

Adipose Tissue↗

PubMed2005

Iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least-squares estimation (IDEAL): application with fast spin-echo imaging.

Chemical shift based methods are often used to achieve uniform water-fat separation that is insensitive to Bo inhomogeneities. Many spin-echo (SE) or fast SE (FSE) approaches acquire three echoes shifted symmetrically about the SE, creating time-dependent phase shifts caused by water-fat chemical shift. This work demonstrates that symmetrically acquired echoes cause artifacts that degrade image quality. According to theory, the noise performance of any water-fat separation method is dependent on the proportion of water and fat within a voxel, and the position of echoes relative to the SE. To address this problem, we propose a method termed "iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetric and least-squares estimation" (IDEAL). This technique combines asymmetrically acquired echoes with an iterative least-squares decomposition algorithm to maximize noise performance. Theoretical calculations predict that the optimal echo combination occurs when the relative phase of the echoes is separated by 2pi/3, with the middle echo centered at pi/2+pik (k=any integer), i.e., (-pi/6+pik, pi/2+pik, 7pi/6+pik). Only with these echo combinations can noise performance reach the maximum possible and be independent of the proportion of water and fat. Close agreement between theoretical and experimental results obtained from an oil-water phantom was observed, demonstrating that the iterative least-squares decomposition method is an efficient estimator.

Adipose Tissue↗

PubMed2005

Field map estimation with a region growing scheme for iterative 3-point water-fat decomposition.

Robust fat suppression techniques are required for many clinical applications. Multi-echo water-fat separation methods are relatively insensitive to B(0) field inhomogeneity compared to the fat saturation method. Estimation of this field inhomogeneity, or field map, is an essential and important step, which is well known to have ambiguity. For an iterative water-fat decomposition method recently proposed, ambiguities still exist, but are more complex in nature. They were studied by analytical expressions and simulations. To avoid convergence to incorrect field map solutions, an initial guess closer to the true field map is necessary. This can be achieved using a region growing process, which correlates the estimation among neighboring pixels. Further improvement in stability is achieved using a low-resolution reconstruction to guide the selection of the starting pixels for the region growing. The proposed method was implemented and shown to significantly improve the algorithm's immunity to field inhomogeneity.

Adipose Tissue↗

PubMed2004

Multicoil Dixon chemical species separation with an iterative least-squares estimation method.

This work describes a new approach to multipoint Dixon fat-water separation that is amenable to pulse sequences that require short echo time (TE) increments, such as steady-state free precession (SSFP) and fast spin-echo (FSE) imaging. Using an iterative linear least-squares method that decomposes water and fat images from source images acquired at short TE increments, images with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and uniform separation of water and fat are obtained. This algorithm extends to multicoil reconstruction with minimal additional complexity. Examples of single- and multicoil fat-water decompositions are shown from source images acquired at both 1.5T and 3.0T. Examples in the knee, ankle, pelvis, abdomen, and heart are shown, using FSE, SSFP, and spoiled gradient-echo (SPGR) pulse sequences. The algorithm was applied to systems with multiple chemical species, and an example of water-fat-silicone separation is shown. An analysis of the noise performance of this method is described, and methods to improve noise performance through multicoil acquisition and field map smoothing are discussed.

Adipose Tissue↗