Objectives

Objectives: the purpose of the present study was to evaluate the clinical feasibility of the modified 3D breath-hold MRCP with parallel imaging (3D-BH-PI-MRCP) using a spatially selective radiofrequency (RF) excitation pulse in patients with suspected pancreaticobiliary diseases. Moreover, we also compared its image quality with those of the original 3D-BH-PI-MRCP with a nonselective exciting pulse and the 3D breath hold compressed sensing MRCP (3D-BH-CS-MRCP).

Methods

Methods: Between January 2021and July 2021, 106 patients prospectively underwent modified 3D-BH-PI-MRCP, original 3D-BH-PI-MRCP and 3D-BH-CS-MRCP at 3T in this study. The Friedman test was performed to compare the contrast, signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR), and contrast-noise-ratio (CNR), overall image quality, and duct visualization among the three protocols.

Results

Results: The contrast ratio, SNR and CNR of the CBD differed significantly among the three sequences (P<0.001). Compared with the 3D-BH-CS-MRCP protocol, the overall imaging quality of the two 3D-BH-PI-MRCP was higher but not significantly different. The scores for the anterior and posterior branches visualization were significantly higher in the original 3D-BH-PI-MRCP compared to the 3D-BH-CS-MRCP, but were no significant differences between the modified 3D-BH-PI-MRCP and the 3D-BH-CS-MRCP.

Conclusions

Conclusions: The modified 3D-BH-PI-MRCP with a spatially selective radiofrequency (RF) excitation pulse could provide comparable image quality to the original 3D-BH-PI-MRCP and the 3D-BH-CS-MRCP during a single breath hold (22 seconds), and showed improved SNR and superior visualization of the pancreaticobiliary tree. Clinical Impact: The modified 3D-BH-PI-MRCP technique allowing direct exciting the area of interest, could not only decrease the slice number but also could eliminate folding artifacts.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the members of Magnetic Resonance team at Fujian Medical University Union Hospital and Siemens Healthineers for technical support.

References

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