Accelerated Internal Auditory Canal Screening Magnetic Resonance Imaging Protocol With Compressed Sensing...

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Medical Imaging
• Neuroimaging

Background:

• High-resolution T2-weighted MRI sequences are standard for assessing the cerebellopontine angle and internal auditory canal (IAC).
• Current methods for IAC assessment in sensorineural hearing loss patients are time-consuming and have limited diagnostic yield.
• Compressed sensing (CS) offers a potential solution to accelerate MRI acquisition by using sparse data and iterative reconstruction.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the diagnostic quality and accuracy of an accelerated CS T2 SPACE sequence for IAC screening.
• To determine if CS T2 SPACE can maintain acceptable image quality while significantly reducing scan time.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of 76 patients undergoing 3 T MRI with conventional T2 SPACE and a CS T2 SPACE prototype sequence.
• Independent, blinded review by 3 neuroradiologists assessing lesion presence, motion, and structure visualization.
• Statistical analysis including McNemar, Wilcoxon, Cohen κ, and Mann-Whitney U tests for accuracy and reliability.

Main Results:

• The CS T2 SPACE sequence reduced scan time by 80% (to 50 seconds) with 98.7% accuracy for IAC mass detection.
• While radiologists preferred conventional images, CS SPACE images were rated as acceptable.
• Confidence intervals for assessing key structures with CS SPACE did not exceed 0.5.

Conclusions:

• Internal auditory canal screening MRI protocols can be accelerated using a 5-fold accelerated T2 SPACE sequence with compressed sensing.
• This accelerated approach preserves diagnostic image quality and an acceptable lesion detection rate.
• CS T2 SPACE offers a viable alternative for efficient IAC screening in patients with sensorineural hearing loss.