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Keywords:
Neoplasia, Imaging sequences, Diagnostic procedure, MR, Breast
Authors:
R. Rosa, A. M. Sarmento, M. D. L. G. F. R. Orvalho, H. Ferreira; Lisboa/PT
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2014/C-2101
Conclusion
The results obtained in this study are consistent with prior studies regarding the improved performance of the Dixon technique over other fatsat techniques.
Dogan et al studied seven [2] and twenty [7] patients at 3T and qualitatively compared the performance of an axial single-pass FSPGR two-point Dixon sequence and a 3D FSPRG spectrally selective fat suppression (SS-FS) gradient echo sequence regarding application to DCE-MRI.
They observed that the Dixon technique showed significantly improved fat saturation homogeneity,
better quality of posterior anatomical structures,
and decreased artifact severity.
They also observed that the degree of saturation was higher in the Dixon technique although the difference to SS-FS did not reach significance.
Finally,
they observed that there were no significant differences between the two techniques regarding lesion features.
In the work by Le-Petross et al [8] nineteen patients were studied at 1.5T and two-point Dixon and SS-FS 3D gradient echo sequences were compared qualitatively and quantitatively for fat suppression performance in DCE-MRI.
They observed that Dixon images scored higher than SS-FS images in 4 out of 5 categories including fat suppression quality,
fat suppression uniformity,
lesion margin clarity,
lesion visibility,
and axillary visibility.
Quantitatively,
they observed that Dixon images also showed significantly higher SNR,
CNR,
SNR efficiency and CNR efficiency.
Finally,
Lin et al [3] studied ten patients at 3T and compared the performance of SS-FS,
SPAIR,
water-only excitation (WE),
and two-point Dixon 3D T1-weigthed gradient echo (VIBE) sequences regarding fat suppression uniformity in non-contrast enhanced images.
They observed that the Dixon technique provided significantly more uniform fat suppression than all the other methods.
In the present work,
fourteen patients were studied at 1.5T and the two-point Dixon and SPAIR techniques were compared both qualitatively and quantitatively regarding fat suppression in pre-,
post-contrast and subtracted images.
It was observed that the Dixon technique provided improved fat homogeneity,
and better visualization of lesions and axillary regions in comparison to the SPAIR technique currently used in clinical practice.
The two-point Dixon sequence has a higher TR due to the use of a dual echo,
and consequently requires longer scanning times per imaged volume: 1min40s for the 3D FLASH Dixon versus 1min30s for the 3D FLASH SPAIR.
Since the scanning time difference is small it is expected that the Dixon sequence is able to provide suitable sampling of the contrast enhanced tissue curves.
Therefore,
the study of the Dixon technique in DCE-MRI clinical practice is proposed as future work.