Keywords:
Neuroradiology brain, MR physics, MR, Image manipulation / Reconstruction, Experimental investigations, Segmentation, Imaging sequences, Tissue characterisation
Authors:
L. Mascaro1, E. Belligotti2, C. Ambrosi1, M. Leali1, D. Corbo1, T. Kober3, C. Y. Tang4, R. Lucchini1, R. Gasparotti1; 1Brescia/IT, 2Pesaro/IT, 3Lausanne/CH, 4New York/US
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2019/C-2105
Aims and objectives
The study is part of a larger research project aimed at investigating the long-term effects of environmental exposure to manganese (Mn) [1] through morphological and functional MR imaging.
As the globus pallidus (GP) is reported to be the target tissue for brain Mn deposition,
causing abnormal MR signal decay [2],
the GP relaxation times,
and particularly T1,
may represent non-invasive biomarkers to be used for further analysis,
given that a good accuracy and reproducibility of the in-vivo measurements is achieved.
Spatial uniformity of relaxation time maps from a homogeneous sample can be affected by the set-up protocol and scanner calibration and quality.
However,
the main sources of in vivo measurement variability are tissue inhomogeneities and artefacts from patient or physiological movements.
In this study,
we assess the spatial inhomogeneities of the in vivo GP relaxation time measurements,
as compared to phantom measurements,
to investigate the impact of both physiological and technical factors.