ISMRM 24th Annual Meeting & Exhibition • 07-13 May 2016 • Singapore
Sunrise Educational Session: Susceptibility Quantitative Mapping

Skill Level: Intermediate to Advanced

Organizers: Thomas K. F. Foo, Ph.D. & N. Jon Shah, Ph.D.

Wednesday 11 May 2016

Overview
This course is designed for physicists and engineers to provide an introduction to new or emerging MR methods and applications that are gaining interest. The session provides a description of the underlying physics principles, image acquisition and reconstruction methods, pitfalls and challenges associated with quantitative susceptibility imaging and the generation of quantitative local susceptibility maps. The clinical potential of susceptibility imaging including quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) methods will be discussed.

Target Audience
Those with an interest in: 1) understanding principles of susceptibility in MRI and the effect on image contrast and phase; 2) understanding the methods and algorithms used to extract measures of local magnetic susceptibility (QSM) and the image acquisition requirements necessary for computing the quantitative measures of susceptibility; and 3) the clinical potential and utility of susceptibility and quantitative susceptibility mapping.

Educational Objectives
Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:

  • Modify the pulse sequence or acquisition protocol that is optimal for generating susceptibility weighted images suitable for generating quantitative local magnetic susceptibility maps;
  • Implement the image processing pipeline or steps needed to extract QSM images from an optimized multi-echo gradient echo image series; and
  • Better understand how susceptibility imaging and QSM can be applied in a clinical setting and the clinical relevance of this emerging technique for generating novel image contrast.
PROGRAM
Moderators: Berkin Bilgic, Russell Dibbs
07:00
 		 Susceptibility & Quantitative Mapping – Description, Overview and Method
Jürgen R. Reichenbach1
1Medical Physics Group / IDIR, University Hospital Jena, Jena, Germany
To review the basic physical and algorithmic concepts of quantitative susceptibility mapping and to discuss technical issues and more recent developments.

 
07:25
 		 Susceptibility & Quantitative Mapping - Clinical Potential & Relevance
Susan Gauthier1 and Yi Wang2
1Neurology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, United States, 2Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY
The clinical translation of QSM within neurological diseases has vast potential by providing insight into iron dynamics in normal aging and in neurodegenerative diseases.  A brief review of the clinical application of QSM to various neurodegenerative diseases and to neuroimaging diagnostic challenges will be presented. A more detailed discussion will focus on the direct application of QSM to multiple sclerosis (MS), specifically highlighting the utilization of QSM to investigate dynamic biological changes within MS lesions. QSM has the potential to assess the influence of iron on tissue destruction in MS lesions as well as within many neurodegenerative diseases.  

 
07:50
 		 Adjournment & Meet the Teachers
         
 

The International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine is accredited by the Accreditation Council for
Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.