Music‐based magnetic resonance fingerprinting to improve patient comfort during MRI examinations

Abstract

Purpose The unpleasant acoustic noise is an important drawback of almost every magnetic resonance imaging scan. Instead of reducing the acoustic noise to improve patient comfort, a method is proposed to mitigate the noise problem by producing musical sounds directly from the switching magnetic fields while simultaneously quantifying multiple important tissue properties. Theory and Methods MP3 music files were converted to arbitrary encoding gradients, which were then used with varying flip angles and TRs in both 2D and 3D MRF exam. This new acquisition method named MRF-Music was used to quantify T1, T2 and proton density maps simultaneously while providing pleasing sounds to the patients. Results The MRF-Music scans were shown to significantly improve the patients' comfort during the MRI scans. The T1 and T2 values measured from phantom are in good agreement with those from the standard spin echo measurements. T1 and T2 values from the brain scan are also close to previously reported values. Conclusions MRF-Music sequence provides significant improvement of the patient's comfort as compared to the MRF scan and other fast imaging techniques such as EPI and TSE scans. It is also a fast and accurate quantitative method that quantifies multiple relaxation parameter simultaneously.

3D MR fingerprinting with accelerated stack-of-spirals and hybrid sliding-window and GRAPPA reconstruction

“…3D slab-selective fast imaging with steady-state precession (FISP) sequence (Jiang et al, 2015; Ma et al, 2016b) and stack-of-spirals acquisition (Thedens et al, 1999) was implemented for MRF. Fig.…”

“…Recent studies (Buonincontri and Sawiak, 2016; Ma et al, 2016b) demonstrated that 3D MRF acquisitions enjoy large SNR efficiency benefit over their 2D MRF counterparts, and could help achieve high SNR at high resolutions. However, high resolution imaging with whole-brain coverage can lead to lengthy scans which effects motion sensitivity of 3D MRF.…”

Magnetic resonance fingerprinting – An overview

“…Apart from modifying various sequences to MRF framework, work has also been directed to improve MR safety[25], patient comfort[26] and decrease scan time[27–32] during MRF. For example, Jiang et al [25], described a modification called quick echo splitting NMR (QUEST) based MRF sequence which reduces the number of radiofrequency (RF) pulses used during the acquisition and thereby decreases the RF energy deposition (specific absorption rate) into subjects.…”

“…For example, Jiang et al [25], described a modification called quick echo splitting NMR (QUEST) based MRF sequence which reduces the number of radiofrequency (RF) pulses used during the acquisition and thereby decreases the RF energy deposition (specific absorption rate) into subjects. Taking advantage of the freedom in sequence design in MRF that lifts the constraint of preset gradient patterns, rather allowing them to be varied as desired, Ma et al [26], described music based-MRF in which the waveforms of music audio files were used to design the timing of acquisition and the gradients, changing the noise produced during MR scanning to a selected music file, which can in turn reduce patient anxiety. Reduction of scan times has been possible using simultaneous multislice imaging techniques[29,28,32] and mathematically advanced reconstruction methods[27,30–39].…”

Reply:

“…As often found in MR imaging, the main bottleneck in terms of possibilities for both techniques is our imagination. 4 …”