Abstract

Flow-related artifacts have been observed in highly accelerated T1-weighted contrast-enhanced wave-controlled aliasing in parallel imaging (CAIPI) magnetization-prepared rapid gradient-echo (MPRAGE) imaging and can lead to diagnostic uncertainty. We developed an optimized flow-mitigated Wave-CAIPI MPRAGE acquisition protocol to reduce these artifacts through testing in a custom-built flow phantom. In the phantom experiment, maximal flow artifact reduction was achieved with the combination of flow compensation gradients and radial reordered k-space acquisition and was included in the optimized sequence. Clinical evaluation of the optimized MPRAGE sequence was performed in 64 adult patients, who all underwent contrast-enhanced Wave-CAIPI MPRAGE imaging without flow-compensation and with optimized flow-compensation parameters. All images were evaluated for the presence of flow-related artifacts, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), gray-white matter contrast, enhancing lesion contrast, and image sharpness on a 3-point Likert scale. In the 64 cases, the optimized flow mitigation protocol reduced flow-related artifacts in 89% and 94% of the cases for raters 1 and 2, respectively. SNR, gray-white matter contrast, enhancing lesion contrast, and image sharpness were rated as equivalent for standard and flow-mitigated Wave-CAIPI MPRAGE in all subjects. The optimized flow mitigation protocol successfully reduced the presence of flow-related artifacts in the majority of cases.

Relevance statement

As accelerated MRI using novel encoding schemes become increasingly adopted in clinical practice, our work highlights the need to recognize and develop strategies to minimize the presence of unexpected artifacts and reduction in image quality as potential compromises to achieving short scan times.

Key points

• Flow-mitigation technique led to an 89–94% decrease in flow-related artifacts.

• Image quality, signal-to-noise ratio, enhancing lesion conspicuity, and image sharpness were preserved with the flow mitigation technique.

• Flow mitigation reduced diagnostic uncertainty in cases where flow-related artifacts mimicked enhancing lesions.

Details

Title
Optimized flow compensation for contrast-enhanced T1-weighted Wave-CAIPI 3D MPRAGE imaging of the brain
Author
Tabari, Azadeh 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Lang, Min 1 ; Awan, Komal 1 ; Liu, Wei 2 ; Clifford, Bryan 3 ; Lo, Wei-Ching 3 ; Splitthoff, Daniel Nicolas 4 ; Cauley, Stephen 1 ; Rapalino, Otto 1 ; Schaefer, Pamela 1 ; Huang, Susie Y. 5 ; Conklin, John 1 

1  Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, Boston, USA (GRID:grid.32224.35) (ISNI:0000 0004 0386 9924); Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA (GRID:grid.38142.3c) (ISNI:000000041936754X) 
2  Siemens Shenzhen Magnetic Resonance Ltd., Shenzhen, China (GRID:grid.38142.3c) 
3  Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Boston, USA (GRID:grid.415886.6) (ISNI:0000 0004 0546 1113) 
4  Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen, Germany (GRID:grid.5406.7) (ISNI:000000012178835X) 
5  Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Charlestown, Boston, USA (GRID:grid.32224.35) (ISNI:0000 0004 0386 9924); Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA (GRID:grid.38142.3c) (ISNI:000000041936754X); Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA (GRID:grid.116068.8) (ISNI:0000 0001 2341 2786) 
Pages
34
Publication year
2023
Publication date
Dec 2023
Publisher
Springer Nature B.V.
e-ISSN
25099280
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s41747-023-00351-y
ProQuest document ID
2832169661
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2023. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.