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. 2018 Jun;31(3):457-467.
doi: 10.1007/s10334-017-0667-3. Epub 2017 Dec 5.

Accelerated whole brain intracranial vessel wall imaging using black blood fast spin echo with compressed sensing (CS-SPACE)

Chengcheng Zhu  1 , Bing Tian  2 , Luguang Chen  2 , Laura Eisenmenger  3 , Esther Raithel  4 , Christoph Forman  4 , Sinyeob Ahn  5 , Gerhard Laub  5 , Qi Liu  2 , Jianping Lu  6 , Jing Liu  3 , Christopher Hess  3 , David Saloner  3
Affiliations

Accelerated whole brain intracranial vessel wall imaging using black blood fast spin echo with compressed sensing (CS-SPACE)

Chengcheng Zhu et al. MAGMA. 2018 Jun.

Abstract

Objective: Develop and optimize an accelerated, high-resolution (0.5 mm isotropic) 3D black blood MRI technique to reduce scan time for whole-brain intracranial vessel wall imaging.

Materials and methods: A 3D accelerated T1-weighted fast-spin-echo prototype sequence using compressed sensing (CS-SPACE) was developed at 3T. Both the acquisition [echo train length (ETL), under-sampling factor] and reconstruction parameters (regularization parameter, number of iterations) were first optimized in 5 healthy volunteers. Ten patients with a variety of intracranial vascular disease presentations (aneurysm, atherosclerosis, dissection, vasculitis) were imaged with SPACE and optimized CS-SPACE, pre and post Gd contrast. Lumen/wall area, wall-to-lumen contrast ratio (CR), enhancement ratio (ER), sharpness, and qualitative scores (1-4) by two radiologists were recorded.

Results: The optimized CS-SPACE protocol has ETL 60, 20% k-space under-sampling, 0.002 regularization factor with 20 iterations. In patient studies, CS-SPACE and conventional SPACE had comparable image scores both pre- (3.35 ± 0.85 vs. 3.54 ± 0.65, p = 0.13) and post-contrast (3.72 ± 0.58 vs. 3.53 ± 0.57, p = 0.15), but the CS-SPACE acquisition was 37% faster (6:48 vs. 10:50). CS-SPACE agreed with SPACE for lumen/wall area, ER measurements and sharpness, but marginally reduced the CR.

Conclusion: In the evaluation of intracranial vascular disease, CS-SPACE provides a substantial reduction in scan time compared to conventional T1-weighted SPACE while maintaining good image quality.

Keywords: 3D black blood SPACE; Aneurysm; Atherosclerosis; Compressed sensing; Intracranial vessel wall MRI.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The k-space sampling pattern used in CS-SPACE. A variable density Poisson disc distribution was used in the kz–ky plane in 3D MR imaging with a 24 × 24 fully sampled region around the k-space center. No undersampling was done along the readout direction
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Optimization of acquisition parameters in a volunteer. Middle slice of the basilar artery is shown. Optimized protocols are shown in the boxes. Arrows show basilar artery wall
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Optimization of regularization parameter in a volunteer’s basilar artery. Optimized regularization parameter is shown in the box. Arrow shows the basilar artery wall
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
A patient with vasculitis. Post-contrast images show strong circumferential enhancement of the left internal carotid artery and left middle cerebral artery. Arrows show the vessel wall and enhancement. All three protocols can identify vessel wall and enhancement clearly. CS-SPACE 0.6 mm images have slightly lower image quality due to decreased resolution
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
A patient with vertebral artery dissection. Arrows show vertebral artery wall and enhancement. Both protocols can identify vessel wall and enhancement clearly. Note the degraded image quality in axial plane compared with sagittal plane
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
A patient with 3 ICA aneurysms. Arrows show aneurysm wall and enhancement. Both protocols can identify vessel wall and enhancement clearly
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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