Fast three‐dimensional dual echo dixon technique improves fat suppression in breast MRI

Abstract

Purpose:To compare qualitative and quantitative measures of the contrast-enhanced dual-echo Dixon technique with the commonly used standard three-dimensional (3D) gradient echo (spectrally selective fat suppression) technique (SS-FS) in breast MRI exams (bMRI). Materials and Methods:A total of 19 women, with prescheduled bMRI exam, were recruited to our study between 2006 and 2008. Dixon and standard SS-SF techniques were used on both breasts of each patient. Image quality was rated in five categories: fat suppression quality, fat suppression uniformity, lesion margin clarity, lesion visibility, and axillary visibility. For quantitative assessment, we calculated the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of lesion to breast, SNR efficiency, and CNR efficiency.Results: Of 19 patients evaluated, 13 had a primary breast malignancy and 6 had benign lesions or negative exams. Dixon images were rated higher in four of five qualitative categories (P < 0.0001) and required a shorter scan time. Dixon images yielded significantly higher SNR (43.8) and CNR (40.1) values than did 3DGRE images (SNR ¼ 34.8, CNR ¼ 25.3; P < 0.05). SNR efficiency (36.30) and CNR efficiency (33.79) values for Dixon images were also higher than were 3DGRE images (SNR efficiency ¼25.7, CNR efficiency ¼ 19.1; P < 0.05).Conclusion: Dixon images were superior to the standard SS-SF images in both qualitative and quantitative assessment of 19 bMRI exams. The Dixon technique could replace standard SS-SF technique in bMRI exam, after our findings have been confirmed in future studies with a larger sample size.

The Dixon technique and the frequency-selective fat suppression technique in three-dimensionalT1weighted MRI of the liver: a comparison of contrast-to-noise ratios of hepatocellular carcinomas-to-liver

“…21 The significantly higher fat-to-liver CNR from our results demonstrated that mDixon excelled in this respect, which was in accordance with the findings of other reports regarding better FS by mDixon. 7,9 There were three limitations to this study.…”

Development and evaluation of TWIST Dixon for dynamic contrast‐enhanced (DCE) MRI with improved acquisition efficiency and fat suppression

“…Another approach to achieve fat suppression is the Dixon technique where in‐phase and opposite‐phase images acquired at two different TEs are combined to produce separated water and fat images (24). The Dixon technique has been applied in DCE breast MRI at 1.5T and has been shown to provide better fat‐suppression results compared with conventional spectral‐selective fat‐suppression techniques (25).…”

Novel High Spatiotemporal Resolution Versus Standard-of-Care Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Breast MRI

“…Uniform suppression of fat signal is particularly challenging in breast MRI due to B 0 field inhomogeneity given the air-tissue interface surrounding each breast and variations in tissue types within the breast. Dixon methods have been previously demonstrated to improve the robustness of fat-water separation in the presence of B 0 inhomogeneities and can be advantageous in the challenging breast MRI environment (33). Fat-water separation techniques such as the one employed here are less sensitive to B 0 inhomogeneities than other fat suppression techniques including the intermittent fat saturation pulse used in the SOC method, especially at higher field strength (32).…”