Multi-spin echo T2 relaxation imaging with compressed sensing (METRICS) for rapid myelin water imaging

Adam V Dvorak; Vanessa Wiggermann; Guillaume Gilbert; Irene M Vavasour; Erin L MacMillan; Laura Barlow; Neale Wiley; Piotr Kozlowski; Alex L MacKay; Alexander Rauscher; Shannon H Kolind

doi:10.1002/mrm.28199

Multi-spin echo T₂ relaxation imaging with compressed sensing (METRICS) for rapid myelin water imaging

Magn Reson Med. 2020 Sep;84(3):1264-1279. doi: 10.1002/mrm.28199. Epub 2020 Feb 17.

Authors

Adam V Dvorak^{1

2}, Vanessa Wiggermann^{1

3

4}, Guillaume Gilbert⁵, Irene M Vavasour^{1

6}, Erin L MacMillan^{4

5

6}, Laura Barlow⁴, Neale Wiley⁴, Piotr Kozlowski^{2

4

6}, Alex L MacKay^{1

4

6}, Alexander Rauscher^{1

3

4}, Shannon H Kolind^{1

2

4

6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
² International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
³ Department of Pediatrics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
⁴ UBC MRI Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
⁵ MR Clinical Science, Philips Canada, Markham, Ontario, Canada.
⁶ Department of Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
⁷ Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

PMID: 32065474
DOI: 10.1002/mrm.28199

Abstract

Purpose: Myelin water imaging (MWI) provides a valuable biomarker for myelin, but clinical application has been restricted by long acquisition times. Accelerating the standard multi-echo T₂ acquisition with gradient echoes (GRASE) or by 2D multi-slice data collection results in image blurring, contrast changes, and other issues. Compressed sensing (CS) can vastly accelerate conventional MRI. In this work, we assessed the use of CS for in vivo human MWI, using a 3D multi spin-echo sequence.

Methods: We implemented multi-echo T₂ relaxation imaging with compressed sensing (METRICS) and METRICS with partial Fourier acceleration (METRICS-PF). Scan-rescan data were acquired from 12 healthy controls for assessment of repeatability. MWI data were acquired for METRICS in 9 m:58 s and for METRICS-PF in 7 m:25 s, both with 1.5 × 2 × 3 mm³ voxels, 56 echoes, 7 ms ΔTE, and 240 × 240 × 170 mm³ FOV. METRICS was compared with a novel multi-echo spin-echo gold-standard (MSE-GS) MWI acquisition, acquired for a single additional subject in 2 h:2 m:40 s.

Results: METRICS/METRICS-PF myelin water fraction had mean: repeatability coefficient 1.5/1.1, coefficient of variation 6.2/4.5%, and intra-class correlation coefficient 0.79/0.84. Repeatability metrics comparing METRICS with METRICS-PF were similar, and both sequences agreed with reference values from literature. METRICS images and quantitative maps showed excellent qualitative agreement with those of MSE-GS.

Conclusion: METRICS and METRICS-PF provided highly repeatable MWI data without the inherent disadvantages of GRASE or 2D multi-slice acquisition. CS acceleration allows MWI data to be acquired rapidly with larger FOV, higher estimated SNR, more isotropic voxels and more echoes than with previous techniques. The approach introduced here generalizes to any multi-component T₂ mapping application.

Keywords: T2 mapping; T2 relaxation; compressed sensing; myelin water fraction; myelin water imaging; quantitative MRI.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Benchmarking
Humans
Image Processing, Computer-Assisted*
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Myelin Sheath*
Water

Substances

Water