Repeatability, robustness, and reproducibility of texture features on 3 Tesla liver MRI.

Objective: Texture features are proposed for classification and prognostication, with lacking information about variability. We assessed 3 T liver MRI feature variability.

Methods: Five volunteers underwent standard 3 T MRI, and repeated with identical and altered parameters.

Accelerated Internal Auditory Canal Screening Magnetic Resonance Imaging Protocol With Compressed Sensing 3-Dimensional T2-Weighted Sequence.

Background And Purpose: High-resolution T2-weighted sequences are frequently used in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies to assess the cerebellopontine angle and internal auditory canal (IAC) in sensorineural hearing loss patients but have low yield and lengthened examinations. Because image content in the Wavelet domain is sparse, compressed sensing (CS) that uses incoherent undersampling of k-space and iterative reconstruction can accelerate MRI acquisitions. We hypothesized that an accelerated CS T2 Sampling Perfection with Application optimized Contrasts using different flip angle Evolution (SPACE) sequence would produce acceptable diagnostic quality for IAC screening protocols.

Does the Addition of DWI to Fluid-Sensitive Conventional MRI of the Sacroiliac Joints Improve the Diagnosis of Sacroiliitis?

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether adding DWI to conventional MRI of the sacroiliac joints improves the diagnostic performance of MRI readers in the detection of sacroiliitis.

Materials And Methods: MR images of the sacroiliac joints of 63 patients with lower back pain obtained between January 2016 and December 2016 were analyzed retrospectively. Three readers reviewed the MRI studies for bone marrow edema lesions around the sacroiliac joints as a marker of active sacroiliitis and gave a diagnostic confidence score of 0-4 using MRI without DWI and MRI with DWI in separate sessions.

Advanced MRI of the Optic Nerve.

Background: Clinical orbital MRI protocols are routinely used to study the optic nerves and exclude compressive lesions, infarctions, or inflammation. However, the small caliber and divergent oblique orientations of the optic nerves make it challenging to characterize them well with conventional MRI, especially since adjacent air-filled bony structures distort the MRI signal and motion is a problem even in cooperative, healthy volunteers.

Evidence Acquisition: Over the past 3 years we have experimented with multiple novel MRI approaches and sequences to better characterize the optic nerves.

Three-dimensional MR Cholangiopancreatography in a Breath Hold with Sparsity-based Reconstruction of Highly Undersampled Data.

Purpose To develop a three-dimensional breath-hold (BH) magnetic resonance (MR) cholangiopancreatographic protocol with sampling perfection with application-optimized contrast using different flip-angle evolutions (SPACE) acquisition and sparsity-based iterative reconstruction (SPARSE) of prospectively sampled 5% k-space data and to compare the results with conventional respiratory-triggered (RT) acquisition. Materials and Methods This HIPAA-compliant prospective study was institutional review board approved. Twenty-nine patients underwent conventional RT SPACE and BH-accelerated SPACE acquisition with 5% k-space sampling at 3 T.

Contrast-enhanced radial 3D fat-suppressed T1-weighted gradient-recalled echo sequence versus conventional fat-suppressed contrast-enhanced T1-weighted studies of the head and neck.

Objective: Traditional fat-suppressed T1-weighted spin-echo or turbo spin-echo (TSE) sequences (T1-weighted images) may be degraded by motion and pulsation artifacts in head-and-neck studies. Our purpose is to evaluate the role of a fat-suppressed T1-weighted 3D radial gradient-recalled echo sequence (radial-volumetric interpolated breath-hold examination [VIBE]) in the head and neck as compared with standard contrast-enhanced fat-suppressed T1-weighted images.

Materials And Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 21 patients (age range, 9-67 years) who underwent head-and-neck MRI at 1.

Quadruple inversion-recovery b-SSFP MRA of the abdomen: initial clinical validation.

The purpose of this study is to assess the image quality and diagnostic accuracy of non-contrast quadruple inversion-recovery balanced-SSFP MRA (QIR MRA) for detection of aortoiliac disease in a clinical population. QIR MRA was performed in 26 patients referred for routine clinical gadolinium-enhanced MRA (Gd-MRA) for known or suspected aortoiliac disease. Non-contrast images were independently evaluated for image quality and degree of stenosis by two radiologists, using consensus Gd-MRA as the reference standard.

Dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging measurement of renal function in patients undergoing partial nephrectomy: preliminary experience.

Objectives: To evaluate changes in single-kidney glomerular filtration rate (SK-GFR) using low-dose dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance (MR) renography (MRR) in patients undergoing partial nephrectomy for renal masses.

Materials And Methods: In this Health Information Patient Protection Act-compliant prospective study, 18 patients with renal masses underwent preoperative MR imaging at 1.5 T for renal mass evaluation and low-dose gadolinium-enhanced MRR.

Highly accelerated single breath-hold noncontrast thoracic MRA: evaluation in a clinical population.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of a highly accelerated breath-hold 3-dimensional noncontrast-enhanced steady-state free precession thoracic magnetic resonance angiography (NC-MRA) technique in a clinical population, including assessment of image quality, aortic dimensions, and aortic pathology, compared with electrocardiographically gated gadolinium-enhanced MRA (Gd-MRA).

Materials And Methods: After approval from the institution board and informed consent were obtained, 30 patients (22 men; mean age, 53.4 years) with known or suspected aortic pathology were imaged with NC-MRA followed by Gd-MRA at a single examination at 1.