Diffusely appearing white matter in multiple sclerosis: Insights from sodium (Na) MRI.

Background: In multiple sclerosis (MS), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) frequently shows ill-defined areas with intermediate signal intensity between the normal appearing white matter (NAWM) and focal T2-hyperintense lesions, termed "diffusely appearing white matter" (DAWM). Even though several advanced MRI techniques have shown the potential to detect and quantify subtle commonly not visible microscopic tissue changes, to date only a few advanced MRI studies investigated DAWM changes in a quantitative manner. The aim of this study was to detect and quantify tissue abnormalities in the DAWM in comparison to focal lesions and the NAWM in MS patients by sodium (Na) MRI.

Na MRI in ischemic stroke: Acquisition time reduction using postprocessing with convolutional neural networks.

Quantitative Na magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides tissue sodium concentration (TSC), which is connected to cell viability and vitality. Long acquisition times are one of the most challenging aspects for its clinical establishment. K-space undersampling is an approach for acquisition time reduction, but generates noise and artifacts.

Evaluation of Sodium (Na) MR-imaging as a Biomarker and Predictor for Neurodegenerative Changes in Patients With Alzheimer's Disease.

Background/aim: Sodium (Na) MR imaging is a noninvasive MRI technique that has been shown to be sensitive to visualize biochemical information about tissue viability, their cell integrity, and cell function in various studies. The aim of this study was to evaluate differences in regional brain Na signal intensity between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and healthy controls to preliminarily evaluate the capability of Na imaging as a biomarker for AD.

Patients And Methods: A total of 14 patients diagnosed with AD were included: 12 in the state of dementia and 2 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 12 healthy controls (HC); they were all scanned on a 3T clinical scanner with a double tuned H/Na birdcage head coil.

X-nuclei imaging: Current state, technical challenges, and future directions.

H imaging is concerned with contrast generation among anatomically distinct soft tissues. X-nuclei imaging, on the other hand, aims to reveal the underlying changes in the physiological processes on a cellular level. Advanced clinical MR hardware systems improved H image quality and simultaneously enabled X-nuclei imaging.

Feasibility study of a double resonant 8-channel H/ 8-channel Na receive-only head coil at 3 Tesla.

Sodium (Na) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), especially brain applications are increasingly interesting since sodium MRI can provide additional information about tissue viability and vitality. In order to include sodium MRI in the clinical routine, a single RF setup is preferable which provides high sodium sensitivity and full proton performance in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and parallel imaging performance. The aim of this work was to evaluate the feasibility of a double resonant receive (Rx) coil array for proton and sodium head MRI.

Feasibility study of a double resonant (H/Na) abdominal RF setup at 3T.

Sodium magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the human abdomen is of increasing clinical interest for e.g. kidney, intervertebral disks, prostate and tumor monitoring examinations in the abdomen.

Temporal evolution of acute multiple sclerosis lesions on serial sodium (Na) MRI.

Background: Several studies have reported the characteristics of acute multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions on diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI MRI). Current publications reported a transient reduction of the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) delineating an early phase of lesion evolution, before increased diffusion occurs in parallel to blood-brain-barrier (BBB) breakdown. Sodium MRI might provide another perspective on lesion development, but clinical applications have been limited to high field MR systems.

Influence of Gadolinium-Based Contrast Agents on Tissue Sodium Quantification in Sodium Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Objectives: Sodium magnetic resonance (MR) imaging provides noninvasive insights to cellular processes by measuring tissue sodium concentration (TSC). Many clinical studies combine sodium MR imaging with clinical standard MR procedures, in which contrast media is frequently administered. This work investigates the influence of gadolinium-based contrast agents on quantification of TSC.

Comparison of image-based and reconstruction-based respiratory motion correction for golden radial phase encoding coronary MR angiography.

Purpose: To evaluate two commonly used respiratory motion correction techniques for coronary magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) regarding their dependency on motion estimation accuracy and final image quality and to compare both methods to the respiratory gating approach used in clinical practice.

Materials And Methods: Ten healthy volunteers were scanned using a non-Cartesian radial phase encoding acquisition. Respiratory motion was corrected for coronary MRA according to two motion correction techniques, image-based (IMC) and reconstruction-based (RMC) respiratory motion correction.