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. 2025 Jan;93(1):96-107.
doi: 10.1002/mrm.30254. Epub 2024 Aug 20.

Joint estimation of compartment-specific T2 relaxation and tumor microstructure using multi-TE IMPULSED MRI

Xiaoyu Jiang  1   2 , Kevin D Harkins  1   2 , Jingping Xie  1 , Jian Wang  3 , Zhongliang Zu  1   2   4 , John C Gore  1   2   4   5 , Junzhong Xu  1   2   4   5
Affiliations

Joint estimation of compartment-specific T2 relaxation and tumor microstructure using multi-TE IMPULSED MRI

Xiaoyu Jiang et al. Magn Reson Med. 2025 Jan.

Abstract

Purpose: This study aims to assess how T2 heterogeneity biases IMPULSED-derived metrics of tissue microstructure in solid tumors and evaluate the potential of estimating multi-compartmental T2 and microstructural parameters simultaneously.

Methods: This study quantifies the impact of T2 relaxation on IMPULSED-derived microstructural parameters using computer simulations and in vivo multi-TE IMPULSED MRI in five tumor models, including brain, breast, prostate, melanoma, and colon cancer. A comprehensive T2 + IMPULSED method was developed to fit multi-compartmental T2 and microstructural parameters simultaneously. A Bayesian model selection approach was carried out voxel-wisely to determine if the T2 heterogeneity needs to be included in IMPULSED MRI in cancer.

Results: Simulations suggest that T2 heterogeneity has a minor effect on the estimation of d in tissues with intermediate or high cell density, but significantly biases the estimation of v in $$ {v}_{in} $$ with low cell density. For the in vivo animal experiments, all IMPULSED metrics except v in $$ {v}_{in} $$ are statistically independent on TE. For B16 tumors, the IMPULSED-derived v in $$ {v}_{in} $$ exhibited a notable increase with longer TEs. For MDA-MB-231 tumors, IMPULSED-derived v in $$ {v}_{in} $$ showed a significant increase with increasing TEs. The T2 + IMPULSED-derived T 2 in $$ {T}_2^{in} $$ of all five tumor models are consistently smaller than T 2 ex $$ {T}_2^{ex} $$ .

Conclusions: The findings from this study highlight two key observations: (i) TE has a negligible impact on IMPULSED-derived cell sizes, and (ii) the TE-dependence of IMPULSED-derived intracellular volume fractions used in T2 + IMPULSED modeling to estimate T 2 in $$ {T}_2^{in} $$ and T 2 ex $$ {T}_2^{ex} $$ . These insights contribute to the ongoing development and refinement of non-invasive MRI techniques for measuring cell sizes.

Keywords: IMPULSED; MET2; MRI cytometry; T2 relaxation; cancer; diffusion; oscillating gradient.

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