Analysis of Quantitative MRI Flashcards
Where does the Quantiative MRI aim to move from?
A qualitative picture to an objective measure
What do we want the quantitative MRI to be?
Of higher resolution, whole brain coverage and be robust to types of artefacts
What can objective measure characterise?
Tissue and can be compared between different individuals or different time points or different scanners
What is the importance of quantitate data
Quantitative data refers to numbers and statistics, and is very useful in finding patterns of behaviour or overriding themes
• R1 is 1/T1 – it is a rate
• MT – a measure of magnetisation transfer saturation – tells about the macrostructure of the tissue
• R2* is 1/RT*
What is coefficient variation?
Something that is capturing the variability when the quantity is measured multiples of times
What do you have when you have weighted imaging?
Very high coefficient variation
It is driven by hyperintense regions in the frontal areas of the brain
Sensitivity of the receiver coil high in that location
Very dependent on how the individual has positioned in the head coil
When do given voxels have arbitrary units?
When it is dependent on hardware when you look at weighted images and the actual signal intensity
What is found at every spatial location?
Measurement that is descriptor of microstructure of the water is experiencing and is a physical property of that tissue
What does the quantitative anatomical MRI (qMRI) aim to overcome?
The inter-site bias issue
It is specifically designed to provide absolute measure and thus data that are comparable across sites and time points
What is demonstrated in a qMRI>
use of quantitative mapping of the longitudinal and the transverse relaxation time (T1 and T2) in a multi-center study at 1.5T. They demonstrated a high comparability between sites and reproducibility within a single site in scan-rescan experiments (<10% deviation).
What is Multi-parameter mapping protocol?
- Axial sections
- Have distinct unit e.g. rate quantity is per second
- Tissues appear very differently depending on what quantity is being measured
What is dependent on the macrostructure?
- Different measures
2. Different types of characteristics of that tissue
What is R2* taken to be?
Marker of iron content
What does MT map measure ?
evolution of the binary spin bath after the off-resonant saturation pulse can be described by
simulataneous apparent T1 relaxation of both pools as in fast exchange and simultaneous equilibration of the partial saturation
the MT-related partial saturation of the free water can be calculated using a PD-w and a T1-w reference signal
Such
MT-sat(uration) maps are independent of the underlying T1 and largely compensated for flip angle inhomogeneities
What does MT map measure?
measures very sensitive to the many macro molecular component e.g. myelin – very strong contrast between white and grey matter, good contrast between white matter and various structures of the Basal Ganglia. This can be a very useful factor feature to exploit because weighted imaging is a combination of PD, R1, R2* and how you acquired the data, you can have different contribution from each of those
What are the characteristics of weighted images (T1-weighted image)?
- Contrast due to a combination of T1, T2, or T2*, proton density, scanner
- Arbitrary units
- Not comparable across sites or time
- Always field strength dependent
What are the characterstics of R1 map Quantitative maps?
- Contrast due to a specific MRI property
- Specific units e.g. seconds
- Comparable across sites and time
- Sometimes Field Strength Dependent, e.g. T1
What is the principle of calculating a quantiative map?
- Models of how these different data should appear and they are changed in based on particular property we want to quantify
- By applying model to the data – we can quantify what the values in the map should be at every voxel
How do you get quantitative map?
weighted images + physical model
What does R2* tell us?
The rate of decay of the transverse magnetisation specifically in a gradient echo
Calculating a quantitative map: R2*
We need a physical model to describe the signal
R2* describes the exponential signal decay over time
Our model for R2* = S0 exp(-TER2*)
We acquire data and fit to this model