Marcus Raudner1, Markus Schreiner1,2, Tom Hilbert3,4,5, Tobias Kober3,5,6, Anna Szelenyi7, Vladimir Juras1, and Siegfried Trattnig1
1High Field MR Centre, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, 2Department of Orthopedics and Trauma Srugery, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, 3Advanced Clinical Imaging Technology, Siemens Healthcare, Lausanne, Switzerland, 4Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, 5LTS5, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, 6Department of Radiology, University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, 7Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
Synopsis
The physiological
biochemical state of the intervertebral disc (IVD) allows for passive
water-storing capabilities because of a high concentration of
glycosaminoglycans (GAG) and an inherent structural integrity. T2
mapping can quantitatively assess the IVD’s water content and GAG concentration,
but a typical 2D multi echo spin echo (MESE) sequence suffers from clinically
prohibitive scan times. To resolve this, we compared the MESE sequence against
GRAPPATINI, an accelerated sequence combining parallel imaging and a model-based
reconstruction for T2 quantification which uses undersampling to
shorten the scan time from 13:18 to 2:27 minutes.
Introduction
Conventional T2 mapping of the
lumbar spine is usually performed using a 2D MESE sequence sampling multiple
contrasts at consecutive, equally spaced echo times (TE).1 The reconstruction fits a
mono-exponential signal decay in each voxel to calculate T2 values.
With desired in-plane resolutions higher than 1x1 mm, limiting specific
absorption rate (SAR) restrictions due to the repeated 180° refocusing pulses, and
with the repetition times (TR) having to be long to mitigate T1 effects,
the acquisition times become too long for clinical routine.
In their physiological state,
intervertebral discs contain a very high amount of water due to a high
concentration of GAGs in the nucleus pulposus while consisting only of dense fibers
in the outer regions of the annulus fibrosus. With ongoing degeneration (e.g.
annular fissures or disc herniation), this integrity decays. Changes in the
early stage of the disease progression remain invisible on morphological
sequences, however, may be detectable using quantitative imaging. This renders T2
mapping of the IVD a desirable biomarker in clinical routine.2,3
We investigated GRAPPATINI4, a T2 mapping sequence
combining undersampling, model-based reconstruction and parallel imaging to
offer clinically feasible scan times and compare the results with conventional
MESE in 58 individuals. Additionally, we compared the T2 values in a
phantom experiment using a single spin echo acquisition. Methods and Materials
After
written and informed consent was obtained, 58 individuals (25 female, mean age
23.3±8.0 years) were examined at 3T (MAGNETOM Prismafit, Siemens Healthcare,
Erlangen, Germany) using a 32-channel spine coil. After a morphological imaging
protocol and at least 30 minutes of resting time, sagittal T2 maps
were acquired with the MESE sequence (13:18 min) and the GRAPPATINI prototype
sequence (2:27 min) in direct succession with equal parameters but with ten-fold
undersampling for GRAPPATINI.
The same experiment was repeated in a qMRI
NIST phantom (High Precision Devices, Inc., Colorado, USA). Additionally, a standard
single echo spin echo sequence was acquired with matching TEs to compute
reference T2 maps. The parameters are listed in Table1.
Additionally, the MESE data was used to compute
T2 maps after discarding the first echo (WO1ST) and only using even
echoes (EVEN) to investigate the amount of overestimation which is caused when the
first echo is used in the fit and to assess the impact of stimulated echoes in
this experiment.
GRAPPATINI was conducted with an
undersampling factor of five and an additional two-fold GRAPPA undersampling,
effectively resulting in ten-fold undersampled k-space data. After filling the
skipped lines using the GRAPPA kernels, the model-based reconstruction
calculated T2 maps as previously reported.5
The phantom
experiment was evaluated in regions of interest (ROI) which were manually
segmented on a morphological T2 contrast. The ROIs were copied to the
obtained T2 maps. A comparison of T2 values can be found
in Table2 taking into account the value ranges of interest (20-200ms T2).
A manual
segmentation was done on four central slices of a sagittal T2-weighted
Turbo Spin Echo (TSE) using ITK-SNAP, labeling the nucleus pulposus of every
lumbar IVD with an individual label.6 After successful co-registration of the
TSE to the MESE and GRAPPATINI sequences, the same transformation was applied
to the saved segmentations in order to apply them in the native space of the
respective T2 maps. An example segmentation is illustrated in Figure1.
Paired
t-tests and a Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis were conducted using
SPSS version 25 for macOS (IBM, NY, USA).Results
In the phantom
experiment, compared to the single echo spin echo sequence, the most similar T2
measurements were achieved with the T2GRAPPATINI with a median
absolute deviation (MAD) from the SE reference values of 15.3ms. T2WO1ST
showed a MAD of 16.5ms, followed by T2EVEN with 16.7ms. T2MESE
showed the highest MAD with 26.5ms.
Comparing the
mean T2 values of the NP in the assessed individuals, mean
T2GRAPPATINI was 96.2±23.4ms differing significantly from T2EVEN with 94.9±23.1ms and T2MESE (both p<0.001)
with 107.0±27.8ms, but not T2WO1ST with 95.7±23.2ms (p=0.375).
T2MESE
had a higher difference to T2EVEN (12.1ms; 95%CI 11.4-12.7) and
T2WO1ST (10.9ms; 95%CI 9.7-12.0), than T2EVEN and T2GRAPPATINI
(1.2ms; 95%CI 0.3-2.1) or T2WO1ST and T2GRAPPATINI (0.4
ms, 95%CI -0.5-1.3), especially in higher values. T2MESE correlated with the other sequences
as follows: T2EVEN (rsp=0.995,p<0.001), T2WO1ST
(rsp=0.994,p<0.001) and T2GRAPPATINI (rsp=0.934,p<0.001). Figure2 illustrates this graphically with the respective T2 values plotted
against the mean of T2EVEN and T2GRAPPATINI, with increasing overestimation of T2MESE.Discussion
This analysis shows that GRAPPATINI
offers a feasible way to shorten the acquisition time for reliable T2
mapping in clinical routine from 13:18 to 2:27 without compromising T2 accuracy.
In the illustrated phantom experiment, GRAPPATINI even showed the best agreement
with the gold standard SE sequence in the T2 value range of the
nucleus pulposus. Of note, the main contribution to the MAD originates from a systematic
bias caused by stimulated echoes. In the analysis of 58 individuals the difference between T2EVEN and T2GRAPPATINI was
smaller than between T2EVEN and T2MESE, with the latter
being calculated from the same k-space data.Conclusion
GRAPPATINI enables
accurate T2 mapping in clinically feasible acquisition times for the
nucleus pulposus of the lumbar intervertebral disc. Clinical application in the
early assessment of degenerative disc might complement routine examinations at
3T.Acknowledgements
No acknowledgement found.References
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