Simple improvement method of uniformity of MR elastography on liver
Yuki Kanazawa1, Yuki Matsumoto2, Hiroaki Hayashi1, Tsuyoshi Matsuda3, Mungunbagana Ganbold4, and Masafumi Harada4

1Tokushima University, Tokushima, Japan, 2School of Health Sciences, Tokushima University, Tokushima, Japan, 3MR Applications and Workflow, Asia Pacific GE Healthcare Japan Corporation, Hino, Japan, 4Department of Radiology and Radiation Oncology, Tokushima University, Tokushima, Japan

Synopsis

The purpose of this study was to development and evaluate a dual passive driver system to improve non-uniformity of liver MRE. This study was performed using a phantom and a volunteer. The standard deviation on unwrapped phase image (S.D.unwrap) for the dual driver system has shown higher values than that of a single system. Moreover, the shear stiffness value of a system having a high S.D.unwrap showed the highest correlation with actual measurement values (P < .05). In conclusion, MRE with a dual driver system may render it possible to obtain more detailed information for the evaluation of liver conditions.

Introduction

Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) of the liver has been acquired imaging data using a single passive driver placed at the level of the xiphoid process [1]. However, the low amplitude wave image caused poor MRE imaging, i.e., inaccurate shear stiffness value. The frequency level that the mechanical actuator motion reaches at one region is important [2]. This is especially true, because uniformizing the frequency of several biological systems, e.g., heart, lung, limb, and stomach present around liver, is more difficult.

Purpose

To improve the non-uniformity of shear stiffness derived from MRE, we developed a dual passive driver system for MRE.

Materials and Methods

At 1.5 T MR system (Signa HDxt, GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI, USA), we performed a phantom study using gradient-echo (GRE) sequence specialized to MRE, and an eight channel phased array receiver. The phantom components were made from agar having different stiffness (0.75 and 1.0 wt%). The electromechanical actuator system had three components; an active driver used as the source of mechanical waves i.e., acoustic, a flexible air-filled plastic tube for through waves, and one or two passive driver that transmitted pressure waves. The passive drivers were set on the right side, left side, and anterior to the phantom. There was a synchronized pulse sequence with 60 Hz mechanical vibrations and 70 amplitudes. A connector for the dual passive driver system was made in-house made (Fig. 1). The GRE imaging parameters were echo time, 19.4 ms; reputation time, 50 ms; field of view, 42 cm; matrix size, 64 × 64; band width, ± 32.3 kHz; slice thickness, 8 mm; and slice, three. The shear stiffness and amplitude wave images were calculated from the acquisition acquired imaging data. Each passive driver setting position and single or dual passive driver were compared the shear stiffness value and the standard deviation on unwrapped phase image (S.D.unwrap), i.e., we regard it as phase shift. of The region-of-interest (ROI) was set on right liver at one slice. Then, unwrapped phase images were calculated as follows [3]; $$ϕ(r)=ϕ_{ w }(r)+2πn(r),$$ where $$$ϕ(r)$$$ is the true phase (unwrapped), $$$ϕ_{ w }(r)$$$ is the wrapped phase, and n(r) is the integer multiple of 2𝜋 needed to produce the true phase for position r. Moreover, we carried out a study using these conditions on a healthy volunteer. The healthy volunteer was a 22 years old man with informed consent obtained.

Results

Figure 2 shows the shear stiffness, the amplitude wave, and unwrapped phase images of the phantom and the volunteer in each of the passive driver positions. Table 1 shows the mean shear stiffness value derived from the image and S.D.unwrap value of unwrapped phase image in each phantom section and volunteer images, and mean actual measurement value derived using a penetrometer in each phantom section. The S.D.unwrap values of the dual system were shown to be higher than the value of the single system. Moreover, the shear stiffness values of the high S.D.unwrap driver position systems showed the highest correlation to the actual measurement value (P < .05).

Conclusion

MRE using a dual passive driver system may render it possible to obtain more detailed information than that provided by a single passive driver system in the evaluation of liver conditions.

Acknowledgements

No acknowledgement found.

References

[1] Venkatesh SK, Yin M, Ehman RL. Magnetic resonance elastography of liver: technique, analysis, and clinical applications. J Magn Reson Imaging, 37(3):544-55, 2013.

[2] Kruse SA, Rose GH, Glaser KJ, et al. Magnetic resonance elastography of the brain. Neuroimage, 39(1):231-237. 2008.

[3] Schofield M, Zhu Y. Fast phase unwrapping algorithm for interferometric applications. Opt Lett, 1:1194-1197, 2003.

Figures

Fig.1 Photograph of setting dual passive driver in phantom experiment.

Fig. 2 MRE images of a phantom and a volunteer. Upper row show the shear stiffness images of the phantom; second, the amplitude wave images of the phantom; third, unwrapped phase images of the phantom; fourth, the shear stiffness images of the volunteer; Bottom, unwrapped phase images of the volunteer. Each line image shows passive driver positions.

Table 1 Relation between shear stiffness values derived from MRE and standard deviations of unwrap phase image in each subject.



Proc. Intl. Soc. Mag. Reson. Med. 24 (2016)
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