Poster Presentation 23rd International Society of Magnetic Resonance Conference 2023

Introduction:

Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting (MRF)  is a highly efficient framework to provide quantitative tissue properties [1]. Previously, MRF at 3.0T scanner has been applied in Parkinson's Disease (PD) [2]. But, compared with 3.0T,  the 5.0T whole-body scanner can provide higher quality images [3]. Here, a pilot study has been investigated to validate MRF at 5.0T of the healthy volunteers and PD patients.

Methods: 

Twenty subjects (N=10 healthy volunteers and N=10 PD patients) were scanned by multi-slice Spiral-FISP MRF sequences at 5.0T scanner (uMR Jupiter, United Imaging, Inc., Shanghai, China), as seen as Fig.1. The 5.0T MRF sequence was designed with variable flip angles(5°-12°) and spiral trajectories corrected using the GIRF method [3], and evaluated in healthy volunteers (mean age: 26.42 years) and PD patients (mean age: 67.3 years) between September and October 2022. The Regions of Interest (ROIs) in gray matter (GM), white matter (WM) and substantia nigra (SN) of healthy volunteers and PD patients were drawn separately and used two-tailed Student t-tests comparison as well as analysis of T1 and T2 maps.

Results:

Mean T1 and T2 values of GM (T1:1325.84 msec±36; T2: 101.39 msec±5) and WM (T1:747.67 msec±41; T2: 51.09 msec±3) from healthy volunteers were compared to the quantitative values of 3T MRF in the literature [2], GM(T1:1339 msec±53; T2: 76 msec±5;) (p=0.0106; p=0.0182;)and WM (T1:830 msec±70, p=0.0358; T2: 51 msec±6.2, p=0.0426)(p=0.0358; p=0.0426). Meanwhile, The mean values of T1 and T2 in the substantia nigra (SN) of PD patients (T1:936.95 msec±43.8; T2: 41.28 msec±6) compared with healthy group (T1:863.83 msec±14.76; T2: 34 msec±5.64) (p=0.0053; p=0.0006) is different.

Conclusion:

In sum, MRF at 5.0T whole-body scanner has a potential to be applied to diagnose PD patients.

Reference:

[1] Ma, Dan, et al. "Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting." Nature 495.7440 (2013): 187-92.
[2] Keil, Vera Catharina, et al. "A pilot study of magnetic resonance fingerprinting in Parkinson's disease." NMR in biomedicine 33.11(2020):e4389.
[3] Guo, Yifan, et al. "Correction of B0 Eddy Current Effects in Magnetic Resonance Fingerprinting at 5.0T Whole Body Scanner" Proc. of ISMRM, Toronto, Canada, June 2023. Abstract Number: 7003.

                                                        Fig.1 MRF images of PD and NC people at 5.0T scanner