Lazar Fleysher1, Matilde Inglese1,2,3, Mark J Kupersmith, MD2,4, and Niels Oesingmann5
1Radiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States, 2Neurology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States, 3Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States, 4Ophthalmology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States, 5Siemens Healthcare, USA, New York, NY, United States
Synopsis
In this work we demonstrate an application of a single-shot EPI
diffusion sequence with outer-volume suppression to optic nerve
imaging. The advantage of this approach is that it is simple and is
available on clinical systems. This paves a way to a routine
diffusion-encoded clinical examinations of the optic nerveIntroduction
The optic nerve, optic chiasm and
optic tract comprise a vision transmission system for the brain. A
critical amount of functioning axons of the optic nerve is required
to provide vision, pupillary function, motor and circadian rhythm
control and other functions. The optic nerve is subject to a wide
range of pathology including congenital anomalies, ischemic,
inflammatory, neurodegenrative, metabolic and neoplastic diseases.
Unfortunately,
routine opthalmologic examination usually can only reveal
abnormalities of the fundus oculi and optic nerve head. Visual evoked
potential recording can provide indirect measure of functional
integrity of the visual system via the electrophysiological changes,
but it cannot accurately pinpoint the location of the optic nerve
abnormality. Consequently, MRI is needed to study the vast number of
disorders that injure the optic nerve and/or reduce retinal
processing and the effects of neuroprotection and restoration.
Nevertheless, MRI of the human optic nerve remains a challenge
[1-4]
due to its size, movement and surrounding CSF. The goal of this study
is to establish a feasibility of routine diffusion-based MR imaging
of the optic nerve using vendor-provided software and hardware.
Methods
Three healthy volunteers (one female) were studied. Images were
acquired with 3T Siemens Skyra MRI scanner (Siemens, Erlangen,
Germany) equipped with a vendor-provided 32 channel head coil and
with 45mT/m imaging gradients.
Diffusion-encoded data were acquired using vendor provided 2D
single-shot DTI-EPI sequence with 21 contiguous 2mm slices and 164x
48.2 mm FOV with 102x30 imaging matrix. Such a short EPI echotrain
allowed significant reduction of image distortions associated with
the magnetic field inhomogeneities. The slice package was positioned
perpendicular to the optic nerve posterior to the globe.
Diffusion-encoding direction was set along the slice-encode
direction. During the scan, the subjects were instructed to fixate on
a cross presented on the stimulus display. Other sequence parameters
were TR=6000ms TE=84ms and 15
b-values randing from 0 to 1000 s/mm
2 with 4 averages each. Fat
suppression was “on”, CSF suppression was “off”. To avoid the
wrap-around artefact in phase-encode direction (L/R), outer volume
suppression was employed.
Results
Apparent diffusion coefficient along the nerve was computed on 4
slices posterior to the globe with clear spacial separation between
CSF and the nerve. The obtained values (mean $$$\pm$$$ std) for the optical
nerve was $$$1.63\ \pm\ 0.19 \mu m^{2}/ms$$$ and for the CSF $$$2.79\ \pm\ 0.10 \mu m^{2}/ms$$$.
These values are inline with those obtained previously using
specially-developed MRI sequences
[1-4].
Conclusions
In this work we demonstrate an application of a single-shot EPI
diffusion sequence with outer-volume suppression to optic nerve
imaging. The advantage of this approach is that it is simple and is
available on clinical systems. This paves a way to a routine
diffusion-encoded clinical examinations of the optic nerve.
Acknowledgements
No acknowledgement found.References
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Xu et.al. NMR Biomed 2008;21:928