Clinical feasibility study of 3D intracranial magnetic resonance angiography using compressed sensing

Abstract

Background Compressed sensing (CS) has been widely used to improve the speed of MRI, but the feasibility of application in 3D intracranial MR angiography (MRA) needs to be evaluated in clinical practice. Purpose To evaluate the clinical feasibility of CS‐MRA in comparison with conventional 3D‐MRA (Con‐MRA). Study Type Retrospective. Subjects Forty‐nine consecutive patients with suspected intracranial arterial disease. Field Strength/Sequence 3T MRI. 3D time‐of‐flight (TOF) MRA using a CS algorithm and conventional 3D TOF MRA scan. Assessment Three radiologists (4, 11, and 12 years of experience in neuroradiology) independently assessed the image quality, vascular lesions, and variations of intracranial arteries of both CS‐MRA and Con‐MRA, respectively. Statistical Tests The Kendall W test was performed to assess the interobserver agreement of image quality and intracranial arterial stenosis. A nonparametric test (Wilcoxon test) was used for comparison of the image quality and definition of the external carotid artery (ECA). Weighted kappa analysis was performed for the interstudy agreement of intracranial arterial stenosis. The aneurysm, decreased branches, congenital hypoplasia, absence, and variant branching of intracranial arteries were observed and evaluated for interobserver agreement and interstudy agreement by kappa analysis. Paired‐t‐tests for signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) and contrast‐to‐noise ratio (CNR) were conducted. Results Image quality is better for CS‐MRA compared with Con‐MRA with significance (Z = –3.710 to –2.673, with P < 0.01). The interstudy agreement of lesion and variation of intracranial arteries assessment for each observer was excellent. The SNR and CNR were significantly higher in CS‐MRA compared with Con‐MRA (P < 0.001). The definition of ECA of CS‐MRA was significantly better (Z = –4.9, P < 0.001). Data Conclusion CS‐MRA showed significantly higher image quality with less blur, comparable image diagnostic performance of intracranial arteries, and better display of ECA than Con‐MRA. Level of Evidence: 3 Technical Efficacy Stage: 2 J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2019;50:1843–1851.

Evaluation of cerebral arteriovenous shunts: a comparison of parallel imaging time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography (TOF-MRA) and compressed sensing TOF-MRA to digital subtraction angiography

“…Recently, compressed sensing (CS) has been introduced to clinical settings [29][30][31][32][33]. This technique provides an innovative approach to undersampling k-space, through exploitation of the underlying sparsity in the appropriate transform domain, promising higher acceleration.…”

Clinical feasibility of ultrafast intracranial vessel imaging with non-Cartesian spiral 3D time-of-flight MR angiography at 1.5T: An intra-individual comparison study

“…CR values did not Introduction Time-of-Flight (TOF) Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) is a non-invasive and contrast-media free MR technique that has been widely adopted in clinical institutions for intracranial vessel imaging in patients with suspected intracranial arterial disorders (stenosis, aneurysms etc.) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. TOF MRA has been shown to be a viable alternative to Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8].…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. TOF MRA has been shown to be a viable alternative to Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA) [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. However, conventional TOF-MRA imaging can be time consuming, especially when performing image acquisitions with sub-millimeter resolution [9].…”

“…A further reduction of acquisition times is achievable with compressed sensing technology (CS). CS algorithms achieve higher k-space undersampling by using the underlying sparsity in an appropriate transform domain [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9].…”

1024-pixel image matrix for chest CT – Impact on image quality of bronchial structures in phantoms and patients

“…To account for the subjective nature of the grading task as well as to account for potential discrepancies in image quality perception between the readers, analysis was performed for each reader individually. Inter-reader agreement was tested using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for data on the interval scale and Kendall coefficient of concordance W (values 0.5-0.8, good agreement; values > 0.8, excellent agreement [12]) for data on the ordinal scale. Statistical significance was defined as P<0.05.…”