Huijun Liao¹, So Wing Lum¹, and Alexander P. Lin^1
1Center for Clinical Spectroscopy, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, United States

To date there have been no formal studies of the cost-effectiveness of magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted by utilizing a decision-analytic model that compared MRS and standard of care to standard of care alone for recurrent glioma and necrosis differentiation. Our results showed that performing MRS was highly cost-effective with incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of -$98,978, -$50,666 and -$41,349 per quality-adjusted life-years over 5-year, 10-year and lifetime horizons. At the willingness-to-pay threshold of $50,000, performing MRS was more cost-effective with certainty of 96% to 97% over those time-horizons. MRS should be considered reimbursable by policy makers. 

Gregory Lemberskiy¹, Dmitry S Novikov¹, Mary Bruno¹, Mahesh Bharath Keerthivasan², Els Fieremans¹, and Hersh Chandarana^1
1Radiology, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, ²Siemens Medical Solutions, New York, NY, United States

We compared standard and RMT reconstructions for a prostate DWI exam on a prototype 0.55T for varying number of averages (1 to 40)  to evaluate the image quality and overall loss. For standard reconstructions, regardless of number of averages, the Rician bias is present even at 40 averages for high-b value data, whereas 1 average on RMT is sufficient to produce diagnostic grade DWI at 0.55T.

Tabea Borde¹, Mingming Wu¹, Stefan Ruschke¹, Christof Böhm¹, Kilian Weiss², Stephan Metz¹, Marcus R Makowski¹, and Dimitrios Karampinos^1
1Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany, ²Philips Healthcare, Hamburg, Germany

Breast density is confirmed as a strong, independent risk factor of breast cancer which is why there is a clinical need for a robust, reader-independent, non-ionizing, quantitative assessment of breast density. This retrospective study proposes the proton density fat fraction (PDFF) derived from chemical shift encoding-based water-fat separation as a novel quantitative MRI biomarker of breast density. As a clinically highly practicable biomarker that is automatedly obtainable and insensitive to acquisition parameters and the partial volume effect, the PDFF significantly negatively correlated with the most commonly used conventional radiographic mammogram breast density estimations. 

Yoshiharu Ohno^1,2,3, Masao Yui⁴, Takeshi Yoshikawa^3,5, Daisuke Takenaka⁵, Kaori Yamamoto⁴, Yoshimori Kassai⁴, Kazuhiro Murayama², and Hiroshi Toyama^1
1Radiology, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Japan, ²Joint Research Laboratory of Advanced Medical Imaging, Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Japan, ³Division of Functional and Diagnostic Imaging Research, Department of Radiology, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan, ⁴Canon Medical Systems Corporation, Otawara, Japan, ⁵Diagnostic Radiology, Hyogo Cancer Center, Akashi, Japan

No report has been found to compare the capability for lung cancer screening among pulmonary MR imaging with ultra-short TE (UTE), low-dose CT (LDCT) and standard-dose CT (SDCT).  We hypothesized that pulmonary MR imaging with UTE has a similar potential to detect pulmonary nodules and evaluate Lung-RADS classification and can apply lung cancer screening as well as CT.  The purpose of this study was to compare the capability for lung cancer screening among pulmonary MR imaging with UTE and both dose CTs.   

Sean Deoni¹, John Rogers², Jennifer Beauchemin², Viren D'Sa³, Eddy Boskamp⁴, Samantha By⁴, Chris McNulty⁴, William Mileski⁴, Brian Welch⁴, and Paul Medeiros^5
1Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA, United States, ²Advanced Baby Imaging Lab, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, United States, ³Pediatrics, Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI, United States, ⁴Hyperfine, Guildford, CT, United States, ⁵New England Collision, Seekonk, MA, United States

The continued increase in magnetic field strength and gradient capabilities of MRI systems has allowed ever more sophisticated interrogation of brain structure and function. However, these systems are often limited to high resource imaging research centers. To extend to more general population-studies, there is need for low-cost mobile imaging systems that allow for anywhere/everywhere imaging. In this work, we built a mobile MRI lab using the 64mT Hyperfine SwoopTM system and a customized Ford Transit cargo van, and demonstrated the ability to perform routine and rapid at-home MRI for the first time.

Michelle Pryde^1,2, Sarah Reeve^2,3, Taylor Bouchie^2,4, Elena Adela Cora^5,6, David Volders^5,6, Chris Bowen^2,3,5, James Rioux^2,3,5, and Steven Beyea^1,2,3,5
1School of Biomedical Engineering, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada, ²Biomedical Translational Imaging Centre, QEII Health Sciences Centre, Halifax, NS, Canada, ³Physics and Atmospheric Science, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada, ⁴Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada, ⁵Diagnostic Radiology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada, ⁶Diagnostic Imaging, Nova Scotia Health, Halifax, NS, Canada

Accelerated MR image acquisition is key for emergency medicine situations, such as acute stroke, but yields degraded image quality. Therefore, our aim in this study was to calibrate a relationship between IQMs and radiologists' confidence in answering pointed clinical questions relevant to triaging of stroke patients so as to develop a protocol at low-field that is “as fast as clinically useful”. We observed that upon increasing R and decreasing NEX, radiologists’ confidence scores in their ability to identify diagnostically relevant features of both acute and chronic stroke decreased; however, radiologists’ confidence remained high despite retrospective acceleration of up to R=6. 

Davide Piccini^1,2, Jerome Yerly^2,3, Tobias Kober^1,2,4, Lorenzo Di Sopra², Aurélien Bustin^2,5,6, Daniel Giese⁷, Mario Bacher⁷, Michaela Schmidt⁷, Peter Speier⁷, Christian Geppert⁷, Rainer Schneider⁷, David Grodzki⁷, and Matthias Stuber^2,3
1Advanced Clinical Imaging Technology, Siemens Healthcare AG, Lausanne, Switzerland, ²Department of Radiology, Lausanne University Hospital and University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland, ³CIBM Center for Biomedical Imaging, Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁴LTS5, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland, ⁵IHU LIRYC, Electrophysiology and Heart Modeling Institute, Fondation Bordeaux Université, Pessac-Bordeaux, France, ⁶Department of Cardiovascular Imaging, Hôpital Cardiologique du Haut-Lévêque, CHU de Bordeaux, Pessac, France, ⁷Magnetic Resonance, Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany

Low-field MR has recently attracted considerable attention because of reduced overall cost, lower field inhomogeneity, a lower specific absorption rate, and the potential for a more widespread global use. Owing to the simplicity and scalability of our recently developed free-running framework (FRF) for cardiovascular imaging, we here present the first results obtained with FRF at 0.55T. We demonstrate that FRF is scalable to this field strength by successfully reconstructing 5D cardiac- and respiratory motion-resolved whole heart images without the need of any gating or triggering devices, while reducing scan planning to a single mouse-click.

Lincoln Craven-Brightman¹, Thomas O'Reilly², Benjamin Menkuec³, Marcus Prier⁴, Rubén Pellicer-Guridi^5,6, Joseba Alonso^5,6, Lawrence L. Wald^1,7, Maxim Zaitsev⁸, Jason Stockmann^1,7, Thomas Witzel⁹, Andrew Webb², and Vlad Negnevitsky^10
1A.A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States, ²Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands, ³University of Applied Sciences and Arts Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany, ⁴Otto von Guericke Universität Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany, ⁵Universitat Politècnica de València, Valencia, Spain, ⁶Spanish National Research Council, Valencia, Spain, ⁷Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States, ⁸Medizinische Universität Wien, Vienna, Austria, ⁹Qbio Inc, San Carlos, CA, United States, ¹⁰Independent researcher, Zürich, Switzerland

The hardware and software for a low cost programmable MR console has been developed, characterized and tested in various setups at multiple sites for both educational and research applications. A new Python-based wrapper allows easy pulse programming of different sequences and k-space trajectories using PulSeq, with output data also being processed via Python. The first two- and three-dimensional in vivo images have also been acquired using this hardware on a large bore Halbach array system.

Hadrien Dyvorne¹, Todd Rearick¹, Michael Poole¹, Carole Lazarus¹, Pierre Weiss², Laura Sacolick¹, Jeremy Jordan¹, Cedric Hugon¹, William Mileski¹, Gang Chen¹, Rafael O'Halloran¹, Chris McNulty¹, Jonathan Lowthert¹, Anne Nelson¹, Aristito Lorenzo¹, Nicholas Zwart¹, Prantik Kundu¹, Scott Martin¹, Andrei Loutchouk¹, E. Brian Welch¹, Samantha By¹, Bradley Cahn³, Matthew Yuen³, Mercy Mazurek³, Anjali Pranhat³, Matthew Rosen⁴, Kevin Sheth³, and Jonathan Rothberg^1
1Hyperfine, Guilford, CT, United States, ²ITAV, CNRS, Toulouse, France, ³Neurology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States, ⁴Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, United States

We introduce methods and hardware for rejection of high levels of interference from MR data, allowing the acquisition of MR imaging scans outside the shielded room and with no disruption to patient care. Interference cancellation relies on deriving a transfer function between “primary” sensors that detect MR signal and interference, and “reference” sensors that detect interference only. Interference rejection up to 67 dB is demonstrated, along with imaging results from scans acquired at the patient bedside in a Neuro ICU.

Vikas Chauhan¹, Sandeep Kaushik², Florian Wiesinger², Cristina Cozzini², Michael Carl², Maggie Fung², Bhairav Mehta², Bejoy Thomas¹, and Kesavadas Chandrasekharan^1
1Imaging Sciences and Interventional Radiology, Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, India, ²GE Healthcare, GE Healthcare, Bangalore, India

ZTE is a novel MRI sequence which can be used for the imaging of the bone. In this pilot study we present our initial experience with this sequence. The pseudoCT images generated after post-processing of raw ZTE data were similar to the real CT images in bone windows and were able to give the relevant clinical information about the lesion size, margins, erosions and bony expansion. As this technique is free of ionising radiation, it has a huge potential for bone imaging. Thus the MRI becomes one stop shop for the imaging of patients with bone lesions.