Intensity correction method customized for multi-animal abdominal MR imaging with 3T clinical scanner and multi-array...

Area of Science:

• Preclinical imaging
• Medical physics
• Radiology

Background:

• Simultaneous magnetic resonance (MR) imaging of multiple small animals enhances preclinical research efficiency.
• Clinical 3-tesla scanners with multi-array coils require intensity variation correction due to inhomogeneous sensitivity profiles, especially for abdominal imaging.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and evaluate an intensity correction method for simultaneous multi-animal abdominal MR imaging.
• To address intensity variations caused by multi-array coil sensitivity in 3T preclinical MRI.

Main Methods:

• Acquired T1-, T2-, and T2*-weighted images, and proton density-weighted images (PDWIs) of 4 rat abdomens simultaneously using a 3T scanner and multi-array coil.
• Developed in-house software to correct intensity variations by calculating coil sensitivity maps from PDWIs and applying them to other sequences.
• Compared tissue contrast in intensity-corrected multi-array coil images with standard volume coil images.

Main Results:

• The developed intensity correction method effectively corrected variations in multi-array coil MR images across all tested pulse sequences.
• The correction method did not negatively impact the high throughput of multi-animal MR imaging experiments.
• Tissue contrasts achieved with the corrected multi-array coil images were comparable to those obtained with conventional volume coil imaging.

Conclusions:

• The customized intensity correction method is effective for multi-animal abdominal MR imaging on a 3T scanner with a multi-array coil.
• This technique can improve the interpretability of preclinical MR images acquired with advanced multi-array coil setups.
• Facilitates enhanced image analysis in high-throughput preclinical research settings.