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Laxmi Muralidharan¹, Manju Mathew², Joey Clemente², Lucy Caselton², Sumandeep Kaur², Mrishta Brizmohun², Shonit Punwani², and Karin Shmueli^1
1Dept of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, University College London, London, United Kingdom, ²Centre for Medical Imaging, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging, Susceptibility, Background field removal

We aimed to optimize MRI acquisition with 1mm isotropic resolution and Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) reconstruction for prostate clinical research. Acquisition parameters optimized in two subjects included fat-water phase artifact removal, parallel imaging acceleration factor, resolution and number of echoes. QSM masking, background field removal and susceptibility calculation were optimized in six subjects and three prostatectomy specimens. In-phase acquisition removed more fat-water phase artifacts than post-processing. VSHARP and excluding rectal gas reduced residual background fields and Iterative Tikhonov regularization reduced noise. This optimized (8.5 minute) protocol and pipeline will allow incorporation of prostate QSM in clinical research studies.

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Youmin Zhang¹, Naying He¹, Zhijia Jin ¹, Yu Liu¹, Xinhui Wang¹, E. Mark Haacke^1,2, and Fuhua Yan^1
1Department of Radiology, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China, ²Department of Radiology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging, Quantitative Susceptibility mapping

This study evaluated the structural changes of the deep gray matter in the cortico-basal ganglia and cerebellar motor circuit in Parkinson’s disease patients with freezing of gait. Using region-of-interest-based quantitative susceptibility mapping analysis, we found pronounced striatum atrophy combined with caudal substantia nigra abnormal iron accumulation in Parkinson’s disease patients with freezing of gait. This result offered new insight into future research investigating the pathophysiology of the freezing of gait.

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Ziyan Zhu¹, Javad Hamidi Esfahani¹, Nashwan Naji¹, Peter Seres¹, Derek Emery², Gregg Blevins³, Penelope Smyth³, and Alan Wilman^1,2
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, ²Department of Radiology and Diagnostic Imaging, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada, ³Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada

Keywords: Multiple Sclerosis, Multiple Sclerosis, Iron Change, Myelin Change

Susceptibility separation may distinguish iron and myelin in multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions, but little work has been done on longitudinal changes. Twenty MS subjects were followed for 14 months to investigate para and diamagnetic changes independently using susceptibility separation in comparison to transverse relaxation and susceptibility mapping. Susceptibility separation provided distinction between myelin and iron events, offering more insight into MS lesion evolution.

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Nian Wang¹, Chengqian Zhou², Surendra Maharjan¹, and Abigail Wallace^1
1Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, United States, ²Boston University, Boston, MA, United States

Keywords: Alzheimer's Disease, Alzheimer's Disease, beta-amyloid

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-associated neurodegenerative disease that is reaching epidemic proportions as a result of the aging of the world’s population. It is likely that the most effective treatment for AD will need to be administrated before cognitive symptoms occur, necessitating a biomarker for the early stages of AD. Novel high-resolution MRI technologies with the capability to characterize the individual beta-amyloid plaque through the whole brain is highly desirable.

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Albert Jang^1,2, Hyungseok Jang³, and Fang Liu^1,2
1Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA, United States, ²Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States, ³Radiology, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging, Multi-Contrast, Magnetization Transfer, Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping

We propose a novel sequence that enables simultaneous quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) imaging and susceptibility mapping (QSM) for assessing tissue composition, microstructure, and microenvironment. We extend our BTS sequence to incorporate a multi-echo acquisition scheme for probing tissue susceptibility information. The acquisition allows quantification of B₁⁺, bias-corrected T₁, qMT parameters (macromolecule bound proton fraction and proton exchange rate), tissue susceptibility and T₂^*. The method’s feasibility is demonstrated using an in-vivo brain scan, where 3D concurrent qMT and QSM were obtained for the whole brain at feasible scan time.

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Zhenghao Li¹, Ruimin Feng¹, and Hongjiang Wei^1
1Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging, Quantitative Susceptibility mapping

Myelin is a non-neglectable susceptibility source in deep gray matter (DGM) nuclei. Myelination and demyelination processes are essential in DGMs during brain development and aging. However, they have not been investigated by MRI yet. We used a sub-voxel QSM method to independently image and quantify the myelin concentration in brain DGM. We recruited 32 healthy subjects with ages from 4 to 39 years old to describe the DGM myelination and demyelination trajectories. The results suggest that different DGMs display various development trajectories during brain development.

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Émilie Poirion¹, Julien Savatovsky¹, Jessica Guillaume², and Mathieu Santin^3,4,5
1Imaging department, Rothschild Foundation Hospital, Paris, France, ²Research clinical department, Rothschild Foundation Hospital, Paris, France, ³Institut du Cerveau (ICM) - Paris Brain Institute, Inserm U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France, ⁴Center for NeuroImaging Research (CENIR), Paris, France, ⁵MDS Research International, La Rochette, France

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging, Quantitative Susceptibility mapping

Despite the characterization of in-vivo biomarkers of MS pathophysiology, there is still a gap between histological knowledges and morphological MRI as it is performed in clinical practice. New MRI advanced techniques, such as quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) might help to better describe the disease, but long acquisition times are limiting their uses. Adding acceleration techniques can reduce this time. However, there is no current evidence about their impact on QSM values. Thus, we added four QSM sequences to our clinical protocol of MS follow-up, varying the acceleration factor from classical SENSE (2*2) to high compressed-sense (6, 9, and 12).

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HONGWEI LI ¹, XUCHEN YU¹, MIN HE², WEIBO CHEN³, Jing Ding ², and He Wang^1
1Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, ²Department of Neurology, The Affiliated Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China, ³Philips Healthcare, Shanghai, China

Keywords: Vessels, Perfusion

Due to the lacunar infarcts are small, they are asymptomatic in most cases. However, the location and accumulation of multiple lacunar infarcts might lead to severe physical and cognitive impairment. This lesion, caused by the involvement of cerebral small vessel in the brain, is thought to be associated with an increased risk of Vessel dementia (VaD). Therefore, exploring the perfusion alterations in patients with early lacunar infarction might help with interventions and preventive measures, thereby reducing the social and healthcare burden.

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Jingjia Chen¹, Alfredo De Goyeneche¹, and Chunlei Liu^1,2
1Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, ²Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging, Quantitative Susceptibility mapping

We propose a deep learning (DL) approach to accelerate and improve the accuracy of the parameter fitting problem of DECOMPOSE-QSM. The approach allows a triple complex exponential model to be fitted in <1s on CPUs and <20ms on a GPU for a 256x256 image, vs. 5+ min for the original solver. The DL solver can be implemented with either fixed echo times or adaptive to a range of echo times and number of echoes. Trained with various additive noise levels, the DL-solver performs more robustly compared to the conventional optimization-based solver when the signal has a very low SNR.

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Rehman Ali Tariq¹, Rania Muhammed¹, Ying Wu¹, Qandeel Shafqat¹, Hongfu Sun², and Jeff F. Dunn^1
1Radiology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada, ²School of Information Techology and Electrical Engineering, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging, Susceptibility, Multiple Sclerosis, Animal Models

There is evidence for changes in magnetic susceptibility in the CNS of people with MS. MRI techniques utilizing relaxometry and magnetic tissue properties – R2* and quantitative susceptibility mapping, respectively – can be used to detect these changes. Both techniques were applied to study pathological changes in EAE mice compared to controls. Significant differences were found in the cortex between EAE mice and controls using R2*, while no differences in magnetic susceptibility were found between the two groups. Although this indicates that R2* may be better at detecting differences, perhaps it can be utilized as a complement to QSM analysis.

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Javier Ignacio Silva^1,2,3, Mathias Lambert^1,2,3, Carlos Milovic^3,4, Sergio Uribe^2,3,5, and Cristian Tejos^1,2,3
1Department of Electrical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, ²Biomedical Imaging Center, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile, ³Millennium Institute for Intelligent Healthcare Engineering (iHEALTH), Santiago, Chile, ⁴School of Electrical Engineering, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, Valparaiso, Chile, ⁵Department of Radiology, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Keywords: Signal Modeling, Susceptibility

Abdominal Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) involves a series of additional challenges compared with brain QSM, mainly because of the presence of undesired contributions related to fat and gasses. Previously, we proposed a QSM phantom with fat contributions, which emulated different susceptibility scenarios in the abdominal region. In this work, we present an improved version which now considers additional features including a variable multi-peak fat model, variable R2* and background field features. Simulation experiments show how these new components produce of different effects, like increased signal decay in specific tissues, 1st and 2nd kind chemical shift artifacts and water/fat swaps in graph cuts reconstructions.

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Hangwei Zhuang^1,2, Alexey Dimov³, Gary Brittenham⁴, Pascal Spincemaille³, Thanh Nyugen³, Yi Wang³, and Eldad Hod^4
1Biomedical Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, United States, ²Department of Radiology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, United States, ³Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY, United States, ⁴Columbia University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States

Keywords: Hematologic, Neuro

We examined brain iron content using susceptibility source separation and oxygen extraction fraction (OEF) in adult healthy blood donors with blood donation-induced iron deficiency treated with intravenous iron repletion at the first donation and a second donation after approximately 5 months and compared it with a control group who was not treated after the first donation. Iron content increases in the parietal cortex, the caudate and the putamen were observed in the treatment group. OEF reduction was observed in the whole brain and multiple ROIs, suggesting iron repletion treatment helps reduce oxidative stress.

Daniil Kirdyashkin¹, Vera Lopatina¹, Petr Bulanov^1,2, Natalia Kriventsova¹, Galina Tereshchenko¹, and Petr Menshchikov^1,2
1Dmitry Rogachev National Research Center of Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Immunology, Moscow, Russian Federation, ²Philips, Moscow, Russian Federation

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging, Quantitative Susceptibility mapping, Iron accumulation

Background TDT patients are susceptible to secondary iron overload. Determining brain iron content may be crucial to prevent brain iron poisoning. TDT Patient and control groups consisted of 23 and 50 children and adolescents respectively. 3D, T1-weighted and susceptibility-weighted images were obtained and QSM maps were reconstructed. Magnetic susceptibility values in brain structures were adjusted for age-related iron accumulation. Statistical analysis, carried out with and without correction for age, did not reveal significant differences in brain iron content between the two groups. Brain iron overload does not occur in TDT patients, whether it be children or adults.

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Ilyes Benslimane¹, Günther Grabner², Simon Hametner³, Thomas Jochmann^1,4, Robert Zivadinov^1,5, and Ferdinand Schweser^1
1Department of Neurology, Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center, Buffalo, NY, United States, ²Department of Medical Engineering, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Klagenfurt, Austria, ³Department of Neuropathology and Neurochemistry, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, ⁴Department of Computer Science and Automation, Technische Universität Ilmenau, Ilmenau, Germany, ⁵Department of Computer Science and Automation, Center for Biomedical Imaging, Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, United States

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging, Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence

Clinical translation of quantitative MRI (qMRI) is challenged by the multiple dependencies MR signal has on different tissue compartments. We previously introduced a neural network designed for single subject analysis (BIOPHYSICSS-DL) that overcomes the multiple tissue dependencies of qMRI and produces maps of source content.  BIOPHYSICSS-DL has previously focused to myelin and iron quantification in the brain but in this work we expand that model to include a free water compartment. The network also used exclusively quantitative MRI metrics but the expansion of this model was accomplished with weighted MRI data which is another critical step to eventual clinical adoption.

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Nan-Hao Chen^1,2, Li-Ping Chen³, Chia-Wei Hsu³, Chin-Hua Yang^1,3,4, and Hsu-Hsia Peng^1
1Department of Biomedical Engineering and Environmental Sciences, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ²Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Nanomedicine, National Health Research Institutes, Miaoli, Taiwan, ³Department of Medical Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital Hsinchu Branch, Hsinchu, Taiwan, ⁴Department of Radiology, Taoyuan General Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging, Aging, Myelin-related images

The regional characteristics extracted from myelin-related images have been considered the markers of brain degradation. However, a systematic investigation of age-dependent changes in myelin-related images remains deficient. We aimed to investigate the associations between regional features and age in myelin-related images. Our results revealed that ADC, mFLAIR, and T1w/T2w ratio were associated with age while aMWF showed no age-dependency. The increased heterogeneity and decreased uniformity in certain brain regions were observed in the elderly, indicating changes of microstructural tissue integrity in ADC, mFLAIR, and T1w/T2w ratio and the clinical usefulness of aMWF without a confounding factor of age in diagnosis. 

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Laura Mouton¹, Anthony Ruze¹, Romain Valabrègue¹, Jean-Baptiste Pérot¹, Lucas Soustelle², Vaibhav Sahu³, Katja Heuer³, Stéphane Lehéricy¹, Roberto Toro³, and Mathieu D. Santin^1
1Institut du Cerveau (ICM) - Paris Brain Institute, Inserm U 1127, CNRS UMR 7225, Sorbonne Université, Center for Neuroimaging research (CENIR), Paris, France, ²Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CRMBM, Marseille, France, ³Institut Pasteur, Université de Paris, Département de neuroscience, Paris, France

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging, Ex-Vivo Applications, Multi-Contrast

Brain development during the first weeks after birth in ferrets is similar to the one in the last trimester pregnancy in humans. Studying the ferret brain could thus provide insights about brain development and the underlying processes.  We used a multi-contrast MRI approach combining diffusion-weighted and quantitative MRI at 11.7T to investigate normal brain development in the ex vivo ferret brain.  We were able to reconstruct fiber tracts even at a very early stage and assess their myelination level based on macromolecular fraction values.  Combining diffusion-weighted with quantitative MRI is thus an interesting imaging approach to study normal brain development.

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Ségolène Dega¹, Ravi Dadsena², Hendrik Paasche¹, and Tony Stöcker^2,3
1Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Leipzig, Germany, ²German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE), Bonn, Germany, ³Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging, Multi-Contrast, Myelin

Myelin water fraction (MWF) mapping using MRI has enabled researchers to directly examine myelination and demyelination in both developing and diseased brains. T2-, and T2*-weighted multi-echo data have been proposed to estimate MWF in the human brain. Even for the simple two pool signal models of myelin and non-myelin associated water, number of dimensions of the parameter space for obtaining MWF estimates remains high, making parameter estimation challenging. The aim of this research is to improve the accuracy of brain myelin mapping using a novel joint inversion imaging method that combines data from multiple contrasts in a single optimization process.

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Moto Nakaya^1,2, Akifumi Hagiwara¹, Masanori Ozaki³, Hiroshi Kusahara³, Yasunobu Hoshino⁴, Yuji Tomizawa⁴, Kazumasa Yokoyama⁴, Shohei Fujita^1,2, Christina Andica¹, Koji Kamagata¹, Masaaki Hori^1,5, Akihiko Wada¹, Osamu Abe², and Shigeki Aoki^1
1Department of Radiology, Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan, ²Department of Radiology, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, ³Canon Medical Systems Corporation, Kawasaki, Japan, ⁴Department of Neurology, Juntendo University, Tokyo, Japan, ⁵Department of Radiology, Toho University Omori Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan

Keywords: Multiple Sclerosis, Validation

In 16 healthy adults, we examined the correlation between three MR myelin measurement methods, including myelin volume fraction (MVF) measured with simultaneous tissue relaxometry of R1 and R2 relaxation rates and proton density, inhomogeneous magnetization transfer imaging (ihMT), and myelin water fraction (MWF). A strong correlation was obtained between ihMT and MVF, and MWF was less correlated with the others. We should be mindful that these metrics are measuring different aspects of “myelin”.

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Dina Moazamian¹, Sam Sedaghat¹, Jiyo S Athertya¹, Bhavsimran Singh Malhi¹, Soo Hyun Shin¹, James Lo^1,2, Hyungseok Jang¹, Eric Y Chang^1,3, Jiang Du^1,2,3, Graeme M Bydder¹, and Yajun Ma^1
1Radiology, UC San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States, ²Bioengineering, UC San Diego, San Diego, CA, United States, ³Radiology Service, Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA, United States

Keywords: Multiple Sclerosis, Multiple Sclerosis, Myelin water

Myelin water imaging (MWI) techniques have shown great promise for the early detection of demyelination and monitoring the effectiveness of neuroprotective therapies in remyelination. The purpose of this study is to develop new clinical transitional MWI techniques, which employ a short TR adiabatic inversion recovery (STAIR) preparation in combination with clinical FSE and EPI acquisitions. Quantified apparent myelin water fractions (aMWFs) show myelin loss in lesions and normal-appearing white matter (NAWM) in patients with multiple sclerosis compared to normal white matter (NWM) in healthy volunteers, demonstrating their potential in clinical practice.

Guojun Xu¹, Zhiyong Zhao¹, Qinfeng Zhu¹, Zuozhen Cao¹, Keqing Zhu^2,3, Jing Zhang^2,3, and Dan Wu^1
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, ²China Brain Bank and Department of Neurology in Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, China, ³Department of Pathology, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China

Keywords: Quantitative Imaging, White Matter

Multi-echo gradient-echo (mGRE) is an important method to quantify myelin water fraction (MWF) of the human brain, but the results may depend on field strength given the difference in T2*. This study performed mGRE-based MWF on ex vivo human brain at high resolution at both 3T and 7T. We found MWF-derived from 7T showed higher measurements with lager standard deviations compared to those 3T, and the 3T and 7T results showed moderate agreement. These findings indicated the MWF mapping result was field-strength dependent and further validations were needed to support their reliability.