MR fingerprinting enables quantitative measures of brain tissue relaxation times and myelin water fraction in the first five years of life.

Autor: Chen Y; Departments of Radiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA., Chen MH; Chang Gung University College of Medicine, Kaohsiung, Taiwan., Baluyot KR; Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA., Potts TM; Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA., Jimenez J; Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA., Lin W; Departments of Radiology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA; Biomedical Research Imaging Center (BRIC), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC, USA. Electronic address: Weili_lin@med.unc.edu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: NeuroImage [Neuroimage] 2019 Feb 01; Vol. 186, pp. 782-793. Date of Electronic Publication: 2018 Nov 22.
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.11.038
Abstrakt: Quantitative assessments of normative brain development using MRI are of critical importance to gain insights into healthy neurodevelopment. However, quantitative MR imaging poses significant technical challenges and requires prohibitively long acquisition times, making it impractical for pediatric imaging. This is particularly relevant for healthy subjects, where imaging under sedation is not clinically indicated. MR Fingerprinting (MRF), a novel MR imaging framework, provides rapid, efficient, and simultaneous quantification of multiple tissue properties. In this study, a 2D MR Fingerprinting method was developed that achieves a spatial resolution of 1 × 1 × 3 mm 3 with rapid and simultaneous quantification of T 1 , T 2 and myelin water fraction (MWF). Phantom experiments demonstrated that accurate measurements of T 1 and T 2 relaxation times were achieved over a wide range of T 1 and T 2 values. MRF images were acquired cross-sectionally from 28 typically developing children, 0 to five years old, who were enrolled in the UNC/UMN Baby Connectome Project. Differences associated with age of R1 (=1/T 1 ), R2 (=1/T 2 ) and MWF were obtained from several predefined white matter regions. Both R1 and R2 exhibit a marked increase until ∼20 months of age, followed by a slower increase for all WM regions. In contrast, the MWF remains at a negligible level until ∼6 months of age for all predefined ROIs and gradually increases afterwards. Depending on the brain region, rapid increases are observed between 6 and 12 months to 6-18 months, followed by a slower pace of increase in MWF. Neither relaxivities nor MWF were significantly different between the left and right hemispheres. However, regional differences in age-related R1 and MWF measures were observed across different white matter regions. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that the MRF technique holds great potential for multi-parametric assessments of normative brain development in early childhood.
(Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Inc.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
Externí odkaz: