Cross-vendor harmonization of T -relaxation-under-spin-tagging (TRUST) MRI for the assessment of cerebral venous oxygenation.

Purpose: Cerebral venous oxygenation (Y) is an important physiological parameter and has potential clinical application in many brain diseases. T-relaxation-under-spin-tagging (TRUST) is a commonly used MRI method to measure Y. Harmonization of this technique across MRI vendors is important for dissemination and multi-center studies of brain oxygenation and metabolism as a disease biomarker.

Methods: TRUST pulse sequence components and imaging parameters were carefully matched between two major MRI vendors, Philips and Siemens. Each subject (=10) was scanned on both scanners within a 2.5-hour period. On each scanner, the subject was scanned in two sessions to assess inter-session reproducibility. A hyperoxia challenge was also included in both sessions and on both scanners to evaluate the sensitivity of the technique to Y changes. Measured Y values, confidence interval of Y estimates (), as well as intra-session and inter-session coefficient of variation (CoV) of Y, were compared between the two scanners.

Results: Y measured on the two vendors were highly compatible and strongly correlated (=0.957). Y changes associated with hyperoxia challenge were significant on both scanners (<0.001) and were also correlated across scanners (=0.007). Intra-session and inter-session CoV of measured Y were less than 3% and showed no difference between scanners. were less than 1% on both scanners and showed no difference between scanners when echo times were matched on the two scanners.

Conclusion: This work suggests that harmonized TRUST MRI can yield highly compatible Y measurements across different vendors.