TY - JOUR
T1 - Diagnostic abdominal MR imaging on a prototype low-field 0.55 T scanner operating at two different gradient strengths
AU - Chandarana, Hersh
AU - Bagga, Barun
AU - Huang, Chenchan
AU - Dane, Bari
AU - Petrocelli, Robert
AU - Bruno, Mary
AU - Keerthivasan, Mahesh
AU - Grodzki, David
AU - Block, Kai Tobias
AU - Stoffel, David
AU - Sodickson, Daniel K.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2021/12
Y1 - 2021/12
N2 - Purpose: To develop a protocol for abdominal imaging on a prototype 0.55 T scanner and to benchmark the image quality against conventional 1.5 T exam. Methods: In this prospective IRB-approved HIPAA-compliant study, 10 healthy volunteers were recruited and imaged. A commercial MRI system was modified to operate at 0.55 T (LF) with two different gradient performance levels. Each subject underwent non-contrast abdominal examinations on the 0.55 T scanner utilizing higher gradients (LF-High), lower adjusted gradients (LF-Adjusted), and a conventional 1.5 T scanner. The following pulse sequences were optimized: fat-saturated T2-weighted imaging (T2WI), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and Dixon T1-weighted imaging (T1WI). Three readers independently evaluated image quality in a blinded fashion on a 5-point Likert scale, with a score of 1 being non-diagnostic and 5 being excellent. An exact paired sample Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare the image quality. Results: Diagnostic image quality (overall image quality score ≥ 3) was achieved at LF in all subjects for T2WI, DWI, and T1WI with no more than one unit lower score than 1.5 T. The mean difference in overall image quality score was not significantly different between LF-High and LF-Adjusted for T2WI (95% CI − 0.44 to 0.44; p = 0.98), DWI (95% CI − 0.43 to 0.36; p = 0.92), and for T1 in- and out-of-phase imaging (95%C I − 0.36 to 0.27; p = 0.91) or T1 fat-sat (water only) images (95% CI − 0.24 to 0.18; p = 1.0). Conclusion: Diagnostic abdominal MRI can be performed on a prototype 0.55 T scanner, either with conventional or with reduced gradient performance, within an acquisition time of 10 min or less.
AB - Purpose: To develop a protocol for abdominal imaging on a prototype 0.55 T scanner and to benchmark the image quality against conventional 1.5 T exam. Methods: In this prospective IRB-approved HIPAA-compliant study, 10 healthy volunteers were recruited and imaged. A commercial MRI system was modified to operate at 0.55 T (LF) with two different gradient performance levels. Each subject underwent non-contrast abdominal examinations on the 0.55 T scanner utilizing higher gradients (LF-High), lower adjusted gradients (LF-Adjusted), and a conventional 1.5 T scanner. The following pulse sequences were optimized: fat-saturated T2-weighted imaging (T2WI), diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), and Dixon T1-weighted imaging (T1WI). Three readers independently evaluated image quality in a blinded fashion on a 5-point Likert scale, with a score of 1 being non-diagnostic and 5 being excellent. An exact paired sample Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare the image quality. Results: Diagnostic image quality (overall image quality score ≥ 3) was achieved at LF in all subjects for T2WI, DWI, and T1WI with no more than one unit lower score than 1.5 T. The mean difference in overall image quality score was not significantly different between LF-High and LF-Adjusted for T2WI (95% CI − 0.44 to 0.44; p = 0.98), DWI (95% CI − 0.43 to 0.36; p = 0.92), and for T1 in- and out-of-phase imaging (95%C I − 0.36 to 0.27; p = 0.91) or T1 fat-sat (water only) images (95% CI − 0.24 to 0.18; p = 1.0). Conclusion: Diagnostic abdominal MRI can be performed on a prototype 0.55 T scanner, either with conventional or with reduced gradient performance, within an acquisition time of 10 min or less.
KW - Abdominal MRI
KW - Accessible MRI
KW - Low-cost MRI
KW - Low-field MRI
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U2 - 10.1007/s00261-021-03234-1
DO - 10.1007/s00261-021-03234-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 34415411
AN - SCOPUS:85113145920
SN - 2366-004X
VL - 46
SP - 5772
EP - 5780
JO - Abdominal Radiology
JF - Abdominal Radiology
IS - 12
ER -