More articles from SPINE
- Cervical Spinal Cord DTI Is Improved by Reduced FOV with Specific Balance between the Number of Diffusion Gradient Directions and Averages
The authors evaluated multiple parameters of reduced-FOV DTI to optimize image quality. Fifteen healthy individuals underwent cervical spinal cord 3T MRI, including an anatomic 3D Multi-Echo Recombined Gradient Echo, high-resolution full-FOV DTI with a NEX of 3 and 20 diffusion gradient directions, and 5 sets of reduced-FOV DTIs differently balanced in terms of NEX/number of diffusion gradient directions. Qualitatively, reduced-FOV DTI sequences with a NEX of >5 were significantly better rated than the full-FOV DTI and the reduced-FOV DTI with low NEX (N=3) and a high number of diffusion gradient directions (D=20). Quantitatively, the best trade-off was reached by the reduced-FOV DTI with a NEX of 9 and 9 diffusion gradient directions. They conclude that the best compromise was obtained with a NEX of 9 and 9 diffusion gradient directions, which emphasizes the need for increasing the NEX at the expense of the number of diffusion gradient directions for spinal cord DTI, unlike brain imaging.
- Evaluation of Focal Cervical Spinal Cord Lesions in Multiple Sclerosis: Comparison of White Matter–Suppressed T1 Inversion Recovery Sequence versus Conventional STIR and Proton Density–Weighted Turbo Spin-Echo Sequences
The authors performed a retrospective blinded analysis of cervical cord MR imaging examinations of 50 patients with MS. In each patient, 2 neuroradiologists measured the number of focal lesions and overall lesion conspicuity in the STIR/proton density–weighted TSE and WM-suppressed T1 inversion recovery sequence groups. Substantial interreader agreement was noted on the WM-suppressed T1 inversion recovery sequence compared with STIR/proton density–weighted TSE. Average lesion conspicuity was better on the WM-suppressed T1 inversion recovery sequence. Additionally, spurious lesions were more common on STIR/proton density–weighted TSE than on the WM-suppressed T1 inversion recovery sequence. They conclude that the WM-suppressed T1 inversion recovery sequence could potentially be substituted for either STIR or proton density–weighted TSE sequences in routine clinical protocols.