Aims and objectives
Dynamic Contrast Enhanced (DCE) MRI is a widely used diagnostic tool.
Analysis of DCE-MRI,
by deriving Time Intensity Curve (TIC) shapes and Maximum Enhancement (ME),
has been shown to facilitate diagnosis of various diseases [1-4].
One important example is the capability of differentiating clinically active juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) from inactive disease [5,
6].
In active JIA with synovial joint inflammation,
a TIC shape representing fast initial enhancement of contrast agent followed by quick washout is prominent and ME is elevated.
Discrimination of active versus...
Methods and materials
A framework was developed using a secure,
stand-alone server (HP ProLiant DL380p Gen8,
2x Intel® Xeon® CPU E5-2690,
256GB RAM).
On the server,
the software packages XNAT [8] (www.xnat.org) for dataflow and Matlab (R2012b,
MathWorks,
Natick,
MA,
US) for algorithm coding and execution were installed.
Images were acquired on a 3T MRI scanner (Ingenia,
Philips Healthcare,
Best,
Netherlands),
using a field of view of 256×256mm,
TR 3.7ms,
TE 1.9ms,
flip angle 12°,
and temporal resolution 6.2s.
After acquisition,
image data were automatically exported to a...
Results
DCE-MRI data presented in PACS to radiologists were enhanced by TIC-shape and ME maps without any manual interaction.
Automatic analysis including data transport took on average 15 minutes.
The radiologists indicated this to be an acceptable timeframe between MRI acquisition and availability of results for diagnosis (Figure 4).
The presentation of and interaction with the results in PACS were clear and useful for the radiologists.
The legends next to the maps were informative,
but not for all radiologists.
Conclusion
Fully automatic TIC-shape and ME analysis of DCE-MRI for routine clinical diagnosis is feasible without compromising the clinical workflow.
Automated analysis is done with a validated algorithm on a secure server within the hospital.
Radiologists were satisfied with the speed of the process and presentation of and interaction with the results.
The legends next to the maps were not informative for all radiologists,
since further explanation on use and interpretation is needed.
Automatic DCE-MRI analysis for clinical routine may facilitate improved diagnosis and prediction of...
Personal information
J.C.
van den Noort,
PhD,
J.M.
den Harder,
PhD,
Musculoskeletal Imaging Quantification Center (MIQC),
Academic Medical Center (AMC),
Department Radiology and Nuclear Medicine,
Amsterdam Movement Sciences (AMS),
Amsterdam,
the Netherlands.
Meibergdreef 9,
1105 AZ Amsterdam,
P.O.
Box 22660,
1100 DD Amsterdam,
the Netherlands.
email:
[email protected],
website: www.miqc.info,
phone: +31 20 5667016.
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