Validation of continuously tagged MRI for the measurement of dynamic 3D skeletal muscle tissue deformation

Abstract

Purpose: Typically spatial modulation of the magnetization (SPAMM) tagged magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) requires many repeated motion cycles limiting the applicability to highly repeatable tissue motions only. This paper describes the validation of a novel SPAMM tagged MRI and post-processing framework for the measurement of complex and dynamic 3D soft tissue deformation following just three motion cycles. Techniques are applied to indentation induced deformation measurement of the upper arm and a silicone gel phantom.

Methods: A SPAMM tagged MRI methodology is presented allowing continuous (3.3-3.6 Hz) sampling of 3D dynamic soft tissue deformation using non segmented 3D acquisitions. The 3D deformation is reconstructed by the combination of three mutually orthogonal tagging directions, thus requiring only three repeated motion cycles. In addition a fully automatic post-processing framework is presented employing Gabor scale-space and filter-bank analysis for tag extrema segmentation and triangulated surface fitting aided by Gabor filter bank derived surface normals. Deformation is derived following tracking of tag surface triplet triangle intersections. The dynamic deformation measurements were validated using indentation tests (∼20 mm deep at 12 mm/s) on a silicone gel soft tissue phantom containing contrasting markers which provide a reference measure of deformation. In addition, the techniques were evaluated in vivo for dynamic skeletal muscle tissue deformation measurement during indentation of the biceps region of the upper arm in a volunteer.

Results: For the phantom and volunteer tag point location precision were 44 and 92 μm, respectively resulting in individual displacements precisions of 61 and 91 μm, respectively. For both the phantom and volunteer data cumulative displacement measurement accuracy could be evaluated and the difference between initial and final locations showed a mean and standard deviation of 0.44 and 0.59 mm for the phantom and 0.40 and 0.73 mm for the human data. Finally accuracy of (cumulative) displacement was evaluated using marker tracking in the silicone gel phantom. Differences between true and predicted marker locations showed a mean of 0.35 mm and a standard deviation of 0.63 mm.

Conclusions: A novel SPAMM tagged MRI and fully automatic post-processing framework for the measurement of complex 3D dynamic soft tissue deformation following just three repeated motion cycles was presented. The techniques demonstrate dynamic measurement of complex 3D soft tissue deformation at subvoxel accuracy and precision and were validated for 3.3-3.6 Hz sampling of deformation speeds up to 12 mm/s.