Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging: JMRI

BACKGROUND: Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) status facilitates the selection of optimal therapeutic strategy for breast cancer patients, but in clinical practice LVI status is determined in pathological specimens after resection. PURPOSE: To explore the use of dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE)-magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-based radiomics for preoperative prediction of LVI in invasive breast cancer. STUDY TYPE: Prospective. POPULATION: Ninety training cohort patients (22 LVI-positive and 68 LVI-negative) and 59 validation cohort patients (22 LVI-positive and 37 LVI-negative) were enrolled...

BACKGROUND: An estimation of an intravascular dispersion parameter was previously proposed to improve the overall accuracy and precision of the model parameters, but the high computation complexity can limit its practical usability in prostate dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI). PURPOSE: To compare and evaluate the model fitting uncertainty and error in the model parameter estimation using different DCE-MRI analysis models and to evaluate the ability of the intravascular dispersion parameter to delineate between noncancerous and cancerous prostate tissue in the transition and peripheral zones...

5 Technical Efficacy Stage: 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2019.

BACKGROUND: Chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) can potentially support cancer imaging with metabolically derived information. Multiparametric prostate MRI has improved diagnosis but may benefit from additional information to reduce the need for biopsies. PURPOSE: To optimize an acquisition and postprocessing protocol for 3.0 T multipool CEST analysis of prostate data and evaluate the repeatability of the technique. STUDY TYPE: Prospective...

BACKGROUND: Measuring hepatic R2* by fitting a monoexponential model to the signal decay of a multigradient-echo (mGRE) sequence noninvasively determines hepatic iron content (HIC). Concurrent hepatic steatosis introduces signal oscillations and confounds R2* quantification with standard monoexponential models. PURPOSE: To evaluate an autoregressive moving average (ARMA) model for accurate quantification of HIC in the presence of fat using biopsy as the reference...

BACKGROUND: Imaging biomarkers, such as the T1 relaxation time of the myocardium using MRI, can be valuable in cardiac medicine if they are properly validated. Consensus statements recommend that for myocardial T1 , each investigator should establish a reference range. PURPOSE: To describe a statistically valid method for determining and reporting the reference range in each center, which simultaneously minimizes the twin risks of undersampling, leading to a uselessly uncertain range, and oversampling, which exposes volunteers to unnecessary scanning and wastes resources...

BACKGROUND: Rapid volumetric imaging protocols could better utilize limited scanner resources. PURPOSE: To develop and validate an optimized 6-minute high-resolution volumetric brain MRI examination using Wave-CAIPI encoding. STUDY TYPE: Prospective. POPULATION/SUBJECTS: Ten healthy subjects and 20 patients with a variety of intracranial pathologies. FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: At 3 T, MPRAGE, T2 -weighted SPACE, SPACE FLAIR, and SWI were acquired at 9-fold acceleration using Wave-CAIPI and for comparison at 2-4-fold acceleration using conventional GRAPPA...

BACKGROUND: The paraspinal muscles play an important role in the onset and progression of lower back pain. It would be of clinical interest to identify imaging biomarkers of the paraspinal musculature that are related to muscle function and strength. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) enables the microstructural examination of muscle tissue and its pathological changes. PURPOSE: To investigate associations of DTI parameters of the lumbar paraspinal muscles with isometric strength measurements in healthy volunteers...

BACKGROUND: Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a hereditary neuromuscular disease leading to progressive muscle wasting. Since there is a need for MRI variables that serve as early sensitive indicators of response to treatment, several quantitative MRI methods have been suggested for disease monitoring. PURPOSE: To evaluate the potential of sodium (23 Na) and proton (1 H) MRI methods to assess early pathological changes in skeletal muscle of DMD. STUDY TYPE: Prospective clinical study...

BACKGROUND: Aging-related arterial stiffness is associated with substantial changes in global and local arterial pressures. The subsequent early return of reflected pressure waves leads to an elevated left ventricular (LV) afterload and ultimately to a deleterious concentric LV remodeling. PURPOSE: To compute aortic time-resolved pressure fields of healthy subjects from 4D flow MRI and to define relevant pressure-based markers while investigating their relationship with age, LV remodeling, as well as tonometric augmentation index (AIx) and pulse wave velocity (PWV)...

BACKGROUND: Alterations in wall shear stress (WSS) assessed using 4D flow MRI have been shown to play a role in various vascular pathologies, such as bicuspid aortic valve aortopathy. Most studies have focused on systolic WSS, whereas altered diastolic hemodynamics in regurgitant semilunar valvular lesions have not so far been well characterized. PURPOSE: To investigate diastolic WSS in aortic and pulmonary regurgitation. STUDY TYPE: Retrospective data analysis...

BACKGROUND: Postcontrast-enhanced MRI is currently the reference standard for synovial proliferation in rheumatoid arthritis (RA). However, the technique is somewhat invasive due to the use of gadolinium contrast agents, which may cause severe adverse/side effects. Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) simultaneously permits quantification of perfusion as well as diffusion using a single imaging scan. PURPOSE/HYPOTHESIS: To test the capability of IVIM MRI for noninvasive discrimination of synovial proliferation in hand arthritis...

There is a constantly evolving knowledgebase regarding the safety of MRI in pregnant patients, as well as the safety of gadolinium administration, given potential fetal risks. This review provides an overview of national and international recommendations for patient screening and safety by trimester, evaluates the most recent literature regarding administration of gadolinium in pregnant patients, and discusses technical requirements when imaging pregnant patients. A protocol for imaging pregnant patients is provided, and multiple common indications for MRI in pregnancy are discussed...

BACKGROUND: The limitation of diagnosis of transition zone (TZ) prostate cancer (PCa) using subjective assessment of multiparametric (mp) MRI with PI-RADS v2 is related to overlapping features between cancers and stromal benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) nodules, particularly in small lesions. PURPOSE: To evaluate modeling of quantitative apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), texture, and shape features using logistic regression (LR) and support vector machine (SVM) models for the diagnosis of transition zone PCa...

Although radiography continues to play a critical role in osseous tumor assessment, there have been remarkable advances in cross-sectional imaging. MRI has taken a lead in this assessment due to high tissue contrast and spatial resolution, which are well suited for bone lesion assessment. More recently, although somewhat lagging other organ systems, quantitative parameters have shown promising potential as biomarkers for osseous tumors. Among these sequences are chemical shift imaging (CSI), apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) from diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI), quantitative dynamic contrast enhanced (DCE)-MRI, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS)...

BACKGROUND: Water-fat separation is a postprocessing technique most commonly applied to multiple-gradient-echo magnetic resonance (MR) images to identify fat, provide images with fat suppression, and to measure fat tissue concentration. Recently, Numerous advancements have been reported. In contrast to early methods, the process of water-fat separation has become complicated due to multiparametric analytic models, optimization methods, and the absence of a unified framework for diverse source data...

BACKGROUND: Quantitative-chemical-shift-encoded (CSE)-MRI methods have been applied to the liver. The feasibility and potential utility CSE-MRI in monitoring changes in pancreatic proton density fat fraction (PDFF) have not yet been demonstrated. PURPOSE: To use quantitative CSE-MRI to estimate pancreatic fat changes during a weight-loss program in adults with severe obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). To explore the relationship of reduction in pancreatic PDFF with reductions in anthropometric indices...

BACKGROUND: There is an interplay between the intervertebral disc (IVD) and the adjacent bone marrow that may play a role in the development of IVD degeneration and might influence chronic lower back pain (CLBP). PURPOSE: To apply novel quantitative MRI techniques to assess the relationship between vertebral bone marrow fat (BMF) and biochemical changes in the adjacent IVD. STUDY TYPE: Prospective. SUBJECTS: Forty-six subjects (26 female and 20 male) with a mean age of 47...

BACKGROUND: The thalamus is an integrative hub conveying sensory information between cortical areas and related to cognition. However, alterations of the thalamus following partial hearing deprivation remains unknown. PURPOSE: To investigate the modifications of the thalamus and its seven subdivisions in terms of structure, function, and perfusion in subjects with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL), as well as their associations with SNHL-induced cognitive impairments...

BACKGROUND: Intraluminal thrombus (ILT) signal intensity on MRI has been studied as a potential marker of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) progression. PURPOSE: 1) To characterize the relationship between ILT signal intensity and AAA diameter; 2) to evaluate ILT change over time; and 3) to assess the relationship between ILT features and AAA growth. STUDY TYPE: Prospective. SUBJECTS: Eighty AAA patients were imaged, and a subset (n = 41) were followed with repeated MRI for 16 ± 9 months...