Water excitation MPRAGE: An alternative sequence for postcontrast imaging of the abdomen in noncooperative patients at 1.5 Tesla and 3.0 Tesla MRI
✍ Scribed by Ersan Altun; Richard C. Semelka; Brian M. Dale; Jorge Elias Jr
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2008
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 172 KB
- Volume
- 27
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1053-1807
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Abstract
Purpose
To evaluate the diagnostic image quality of postgadolinium water excitation–magnetization‐prepared rapid gradient‐echo (WE‐MPRAGE) sequence in abdominal examinations of noncooperative patients at 1.5 Tesla (T) and 3.0T MRI.
Materials and Methods
Eighty‐nine consecutive patients (48 males and 41 females; mean age ± standard deviation, 54.6 ± 16.6 years) who had MRI examinations including postgadolinium WE‐MPRAGE were included in the study. Of 89 patients, 33 underwent noncooperative protocol at 1.5T, 10 underwent noncooperative protocol at 3.0T, and 46 underwent cooperative protocol at 3.0T. Postgadolinium WE‐MPRAGE, MPRAGE, and three‐dimensional gradient‐echo sequences of these three different groups were qualitatively evaluated for image quality, extent of artifacts, lesion conspicuity, and homogeneity of fat‐attenuation by two reviewers retrospectively, independently, and blindly. The results were compared using Wilcoxon signed rank and Mann‐Whitney U tests. Kappa statistics were used to measure the extent of agreement between the reviewers.
Results
The average scores indicated that the images were diagnostic for WE‐MPRAGE at 1.5T and 3.0T in noncooperative patients. WE‐MPRAGE achieved homogenous fat‐attenuation in 31/33 (94%) of noncooperative patients at 1.5T and 10/10 (100%) of noncooperative patients at 3.0T. WE‐MPRAGE at 3.0T had better results for image quality, extent of artifacts, lesion conspicuity and homogeneity of fat‐attenuation compared with WE‐MPRAGE at 1.5T, in noncooperative patients (P = 0.0008, 0.0006, 0.0024, and 0.0042; respectively). Kappa statistics varied between 0.76 and 1.00, representing good to excellent agreement.
Conclusion
WE‐MPRAGE may be used as a T1‐weighted postgadolinium fat‐attenuated sequence in noncooperative patients, particularly at 3.0T MRI. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2008;27:1146–1154. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.