Quantification of liver fibrosis: extracellular volume fraction using an MRI bolus-only technique in a rat animal model.

Background: To determine the utility of single-contrast-bolus hepatic extracellular volume (ECV) fraction measurement at different time points to detect and quantify hepatic fibrosis.

Methods: Different grades of liver fibrosis were induced in 23 male Sprague-Dawley rats by carbon-tetrachloride (CCl) intoxication. In ten control rats, no fibrosis was induced.

Proton density fat fraction MRI of vertebral bone marrow: Accuracy, repeatability, and reproducibility among readers, field strengths, and imaging platforms.

Background: Chemical shift-encoding based water-fat MRI is an emerging method to noninvasively assess proton density fat fraction (PDFF), a promising quantitative imaging biomarker for estimating tissue fat concentration. However, in vivo validation of PDFF is still lacking for bone marrow applications.

Purpose: To determine the accuracy and precision of MRI-determined vertebral bone marrow PDFF among different readers and across different field strengths and imager manufacturers.

Early diagnosis in a case of atypically located germinoma: H-MR-spectroscopy as a decision tool.

CNS germinoma is a malignant germ cell tumor with a high potential for curative treatment. In MRI it mainly appears as contrast enhancing mass in the midline structures of the brain but it can also occur atypically located in the basal ganglia. We present the case of a 21-year-old patient suffering from psychiatric symptoms and a mild, right-sided hemiparesis.

Quantitative evaluation of T2* relaxation times for the differentiation of acute benign and malignant vertebral body fractures.

Objectives: The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the diagnostic performance of T2*-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to differentiate between acute benign and neoplastic vertebral compression fractures (VCFs).

Materials And Methods: Thirty-seven consecutive patients with a total of 52 VCFs were prospectively enrolled in this IRB approved study. All VCFs were categorized as either benign or malignant according to direct bone biopsy and histopathologic confirmation.

Cerebrovascular Reactivity during Prolonged Breath-Hold in Experienced Freedivers.

Background And Purpose: Experienced freedivers can endure prolonged breath-holds despite severe hypoxemia and are therefore ideal subjects to study apnea-induced cerebrovascular reactivity. This multiparametric study investigated CBF, the spatial coefficient of variation as a correlate of arterial transit time and brain metabolism, dynamics during prolonged apnea.

Materials And Methods: Fifteen male freedivers (age range, 20-64 years; cumulative previous prolonged breath-holds >2 minutes and 30 seconds: 4-79,200) underwent repetitive 3T pseudocontinuous arterial spin-labeling and P-/H-MR spectroscopy before, during, and after a 5-minute breath-hold (split into early and late phases) and gave temporally matching venous blood gas samples.