J Magn Reson Imaging. 2023 May 17. doi: 10.1002/jmri.28773. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) stromal disposition is thought to influence chemotherapy efficacy and increase tissue stiffness, which could be quantified noninvasively via MR elastography (MRE). Current methods cause position-based errors in pancreas location over time, hampering accuracy. It would be beneficial to have a single breath-hold acquisition.
PURPOSE: To develop and test a single breath-hold three-dimensional MRE technique utilizing prospective undersampling and a compressed sensing reconstruction (CS-MRE).
STUDY TYPE: Prospective.
POPULATION: A total of 30 healthy volunteers (HV) (31 ± 9 years; 33% male) and five patients with PDAC (69 ± 5 years; 80% male).
FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 3-T, GRE Ristretto MRE.
ASSESSMENT: First, optimization of multi breath-hold MRE was done in 10 HV using four combinations of vibration frequency, number of measured wave-phase offsets, and TE and looking at MRE quality measures in the pancreas head. Second, viscoelastic parameters delineated in the pancreas head or tumor of CS-MRE were compared against (I) 2D and (II) 3D four breath-hold acquisitions in HV (N = 20) and PDAC patients. Intrasession repeatability was assessed for CS-MRE in a subgroup of healthy volunteers (N = 15).
STATISTICAL TESTS: Tests include repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), Bland-Altman analysis, and coefficients of variation (CoVs). A P-value <.05 was considered statistically significant.
RESULTS: Optimization of the four breath-hold acquisitions resulted in 40 Hz vibration frequency, five wave-phases, and echo time (TE) = 6.9 msec as the preferred method (4BH-MRE). CS-MRE quantitative results did not differ from 4BH-MRE. Shear wave speed (SWS) and phase angle differed significantly between HV and PDAC patients using 4BH-MRE or CS-MRE. The limits of agreement for SWS were [-0.09, 0.10] m/second and the within-subject CoV was 4.8% for CS-MRE.
DATA CONCLUSION: CS-MRE might allow a single breath-hold MRE acquisition with comparable SWS and phase angle as 4BH-MRE, and it may still enable to differentiate between HV and PDAC.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 Technical Efficacy Stage: 2.
PMID:37194646 | DOI:10.1002/jmri.28773
