Since the clinical introduction of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the chest has been one of its most challenging applications, and since the 1980s many physicists and radiologists have been trying ...to evaluate images for various lung diseases as well as mediastinal and pleural diseases. However, thoracic MRI could not yield image quality sufficient for a convincing diagnosis within an acceptable examination time, so MRI did not find acceptance as a substitute for computed tomography (CT) and other modalities. Until the 2000, thoracic MRI was generally used only for select, minor clinical indications. Within the past decade, however, technical advances in sequencing, scanners and coils, adaptation of parallel imaging techniques, utilization of contrast media, and development of postprocessing tools have been developed. In addition, pulmonary functional MRI has been extensively researched, and MR is being assessed as a new research and diagnostic tool for pulmonary diseases. State-of-the art thoracic MRI now has the potential as a substitute for traditional imaging techniques and/or to play a complimentary role in patient management. In this review, we focus on these advances in MRI for thoracic oncologic imaging, especially for pulmonary nodule assessment, lung cancer staging, mediastinal tumor diagnosis and malignant mesothelioma evaluation, prediction of postoperative lung function, and prediction or evaluation of therapeutic effectiveness. We also discuss the potential and limitations of these advances for routine clinical practice in comparison with other modalities such as CT, positron emission tomography (PET), PET/CT, or nuclear medicine studies.
Pulmonary MRI provides structural and quantitative functional images of the lungs without ionizing radiation, but it has had limited clinical use due to low signal intensity from the lung parenchyma. ...The lack of radiation makes pulmonary MRI an ideal modality for pediatric examinations, pregnant women, and patients requiring serial and longitudinal follow-up. Fortunately, recent MRI techniques, including ultrashort echo time and zero echo time, are expanding clinical opportunities for pulmonary MRI. With the use of multicoil parallel acquisitions and acceleration methods, these techniques make pulmonary MRI practical for evaluating lung parenchymal and pulmonary vascular diseases. The purpose of this Fleischner Society position paper is to familiarize radiologists and other interested clinicians with these advances in pulmonary MRI and to stratify the Society recommendations for the clinical use of pulmonary MRI into three categories:
suggested for current clinical use,
promising but requiring further validation or regulatory approval, and
appropriate for research investigations. This position paper also provides recommendations for vendors and infrastructure, identifies methods for hypothesis-driven research, and suggests opportunities for prospective, randomized multicenter trials to investigate and validate lung MRI methods.
Highlights • Radiomics is defined as the use of automated or semi-automated post-processing and analysis of large amounts of quantitative imaging features that can be derived from medical images. • ...The automated generation of these analytical features helps to quantify a number of variables in the imaging assessment of lung malignancy. • We aimed to summarize the current state of the art on this amazingly interesting topic.
•Compressed SPEEDER can shorten examination time compared with conventional SPEEDER.•AiCE (denoising using Deep learning) can improve image quality of MRI.•Compressed SPEEDER and AiCE are more useful ...than SPEEDER for women’s pelvic MRI.
To demonstrate the utility of compressed sensing with parallel imaging (Compressed SPEEDER) and AiCE compared with that of conventional parallel imaging (SPEEDER) for shortening examination time and improving image quality of women’s pelvic MRI.
Thirty consecutive patients with women’s pelvic diseases (mean age 50 years) underwent T2-weighted imaging using Compressed SPEEDER as well as conventional SPEEDER reconstructed with and without AiCE. The examination times were recorded, and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was calculated for every patient. Moreover, overall image quality was assessed using a 5-point scoring system, and final scores for all patients were determined by consensus of two readers. Mean examination time, SNR and overall image quality were compared among the four data sets by Wilcoxon signed–rank test.
Examination times for Compressed SPEEDER with and without AiCE were significantly shorter than those for conventional SPEEDER with and without AiCE (with AiCE: p < 0.0001, without AiCE: p < 0.0001). SNR of Compressed SPEEDER and of SPEEDER with AiCE was significantly superior to that of Compressed SPEEDER without AiCE (vs. Compressed SPEEDER, p = 0.01; vs. SPEEDER, p = 0.009). Overall image quality of Compressed SPEEDER with AiCE and of SPEEDER with and without AiCE was significantly higher than that of Compressed SPEEDER without AiCE (vs. Compressed SPEEDER with AiCE, p < 0.0001; vs. SPEEDER with AiCE, p < 0.0001; SPEEDER without AiCE, p = 0.0003).
Image quality and shorten examination time for T2-weighted imaging in women’s pelvic MRI can be significantly improved by using Compressed SPEEDER with AiCE in comparison with conventional SPEEDER, although other sequences were not tested.
•Compressed sensing (CS) is a new method for head and neck MR image acquisition.•Parallel imaging (PI) with CS can reduce examination time as compared with PI.•The new sequence performed slightly ...better than the old sequence at reduced scan time.
To directly compare the capability of compressed sensing (CS) and parallel imaging (PI) accelerated T2 FSE (Fast Spin Echo) sequence with PI for head and neck MR imaging.
Thirty consecutive patients with various head and neck diseases (15 men and 15 women, mean age 53 ± 22 years) underwent MR imaging by PI with CS and by PI. Reduction factors were as follows: PI with CS, 3 and PI, 1.5. Examination times for PI with CS and PI were all recorded. For quantitative image quality assessment, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) were calculated. For qualitative assessment, two investigators assessed overall image quality, artifacts and diagnostic confidence level using a 5-point scoring system, and final scores were determined by consensus of two readers. Mean examination time and all indexes were compared by means of paired t-test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Inter-observer agreement for each qualitative index was assessed in terms of kappa statistics.
Mean examination time for PI with CS (83.5 ± 11.0 s) was significantly shorter than that for PI (173.0 ± 54.4 s, p < 0.0001). SNR and CNR of PI with CS were significantly better than those with PI (mean SNR; 11.2 ± 3.6 vs 8.9 ± 2.6, median of CNR; 7.4 vs. 6.1, p < 0.0001). All inter-observer agreements were assessed as significant and substantial (0.62 < κ < 0.81).
PI with CS accelerated T2 weighted sequence performs equally well or even slightly better than its PI accelerated, conventional counterpart at reduced scan times in the context of head and neck MR imaging.
To prospectively evaluate the capability of amide proton transfer-weighted chemical exchange saturation transfer magnetic resonance (MR) imaging for characterization of thoracic lesions.
The ...institutional review board approved this study, and written informed consent was obtained from 21 patients (13 men and eight women; mean age, 72 years) prior to enrollment. Each patient underwent chemical exchange saturation transfer MR imaging by using respiratory-synchronized half-Fourier fast spin-echo imaging after a series of magnetization transfer pulses. Next, a magnetization transfer ratio asymmetry at 3.5 ppm map was computationally generated. Pathology examinations resulted in a diagnosis of 13 malignant and eight benign thoracic lesions. The malignant lesions were further diagnosed as being nine lung cancers, comprising six adenocarcinomas, three squamous cell carcinomas, and four other thoracic malignancies. The Student t test was used to evaluate the capability of magnetization transfer ratio asymmetry (at 3.5 ppm), as assessed by means of region of interest measurements, for differentiating benign and malignant lesions, lung cancers and other thoracic lesions, and adenocarcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas.
Magnetization transfer ratio asymmetry (at 3.5 ppm) was significantly higher for malignant tumors (mean ± standard deviation, 3.56% ± 3.01) than for benign lesions (0.33% ± 0.38, P = .008). It was also significantly higher for other thoracic malignancies (6.71% ± 3.46) than for lung cancer (2.16% ± 1.41, P = .005) and for adenocarcinoma (2.88% ± 1.13) than for squamous cell carcinoma (0.71% ± 0.17, P = .02).
Amide proton transfer-weighted chemical exchange saturation transfer MR imaging allows characterization of thoracic lesions.
Highlights • From a technical point of view, the feasibility of using MRI for lung cancer screening is evident. • Experience with the clinical use of lung MRI is growing, standardized protocols are ...available. • If lung cancer screening becomes effective, there will be an opportunity for MRI as primary screening modality or adjunct to CT. • Validation of better patient outcomes (test effectiveness) for the use of MRI is still missing, therefore. • A simultaneous evaluation of MRI should be embedded into any future prospective lung cancer screening trials.
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