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Updated: Dec 30, 2025
Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Skeletal Muscle Disease
Published on: December 18, 2016
Wave-CAIPI susceptibility-weighted imaging achieves diagnostic performance comparable to conventional
Mi Sun Chung1, Eun Jung Lee1, Sujin Kim1
1Department of Radiology, Chung-Ang University Hospital, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, 102 Heukseok-ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Objectives:
We aimed to evaluate the agreement in the detection of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) between conventional susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) and fast SWI using wave-controlled aliasing in parallel imaging (CAIPI) acceleration. We also scrutinized the diagnostic agreement for intracranial lesions and compared the image quality between both sequences.
Methods:
Institutional review board approval was obtained and informed consent was waived for this retrospective study. We included 181 consecutive patients who had undergone brain MRI with both conventional SWI (scan time, 251 s) and wave-CAIPI SWI (scan time, 113 s) from September 2017 to November 2017. All images were independently reviewed by two radiologists for the detection and counting of CMBs using the Microbleed Anatomical Rating Scale (MARS). One neuroradiologist diagnosed intracranial lesions and scored image quality using visual analysis. The agreement for detection of CMBs and intracranial lesions was calculated, and interobserver agreements were analyzed by using kappa and intraclass correlation.
Results:
For detection of CMBs, both the conventional and wave-CAIPI SWI showed significantly high agreement of 100% for the presence of CMBs, and 94.5% using MARS. Wave-CAIPI SWI achieved more than 97% agreement of MARS when divided by anatomical locations, with excellent agreement. Interobserver agreements were also excellent. The diagnosis for intracranial lesions (33 lesions in 28 patients) demonstrated 100% agreement. The image quality of both sequences is not significantly different (p = 0.20).
Conclusions:
Wave-CAIPI SWI achieved high agreement for CMB detection and diagnosis of intracranial lesions compared to conventional SWI within half of the scan time.
Key Points:
• Wave-CAIPI SWI achieves a diagnostic performance for the detection of cerebral microbleeds that is comparable to that of conventional SWI in half the scan time. • Interobserver agreement for the detection (presence vs. absence) and counting of cerebral microbleeds of wave-CAIPI SWI was excellent. • Wave-CAIPI SWI demonstrated a 100% agreement for the diagnosis of intracranial lesions and comparable image quality compared to conventional SWI.
Insights
Fast wave-controlled aliasing in parallel imaging (CAIPI) accelerated susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) shows high agreement for detecting cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) and intracranial lesions compared to conventional SWI. This faster method achieves comparable diagnostic performance in half the scan time.
Area of Science:
- Neuroradiology
- Medical Imaging
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are important imaging biomarkers.
- Conventional susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) is used for CMB detection but has a long scan time.
- Accelerated imaging techniques may improve efficiency.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare the diagnostic performance of fast SWI using wave-controlled aliasing in parallel imaging (CAIPI) acceleration with conventional SWI for detecting CMBs.
- To evaluate the agreement in diagnosing intracranial lesions between the two SWI techniques.
- To compare the image quality of both sequences.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective analysis of 181 patients undergoing brain MRI with both conventional SWI and wave-CAIPI SWI.
- Independent review by two radiologists for CMB detection and counting using the Microbleed Anatomical Rating Scale (MARS).
- Diagnosis of intracranial lesions and image quality assessment by a neuroradiologist.
Main Results:
- Wave-CAIPI SWI demonstrated high agreement (100% for presence, 94.5% using MARS) with conventional SWI for CMB detection.
- Excellent interobserver agreement was achieved for CMB detection and counting.
- 100% agreement was found for the diagnosis of intracranial lesions, with comparable image quality between sequences.
Conclusions:
- Wave-CAIPI SWI offers comparable diagnostic performance to conventional SWI for CMB detection and intracranial lesion diagnosis.
- The accelerated wave-CAIPI SWI technique significantly reduces scan time by more than half.
- This faster sequence is a viable alternative for routine clinical use.
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