Synthetic MRI in subarachnoid haemorrhage

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Radiology
• Medical Technology

Background:

• Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a critical condition requiring prompt diagnosis and monitoring for complications.
• Conventional MRI is the standard for evaluating SAH complications, but can be time-consuming.
• Synthetic MRI (SyMRI) offers potential for faster image acquisition and robust diagnostic capabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the diagnostic reliability of SyMRI in identifying SAH complications.
• To compare SyMRI's performance against conventional MRI for detecting ischemic lesions, hydrocephalus, and bleeding.
• To evaluate the impact of SyMRI on imaging acquisition time.

Main Methods:

• Twenty patients with SAH underwent both conventional MRI and SyMRI on a 3 Tesla scanner.
• Comparable T2-weighted fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequences were analyzed.
• Detection of ischemic lesions, hydrocephalus, extra-axial collections, and volumetric measurements (GMv, WMv, CSFv) were compared.

Main Results:

• SyMRI demonstrated excellent concordance with conventional MRI for detecting ischemic lesions (kappa=0.80) and extra-axial collections (kappa=0.88).
• Good concordance was observed for hydrocephalus detection (kappa=0.69).
• No significant differences were found in lesion counts, Evans index, or volumetric measures; SyMRI acquisition was faster.

Conclusions:

• SyMRI is a reliable tool for detecting SAH complications, comparable to conventional MRI.
• SyMRI offers a significant reduction in imaging time, enhancing clinical workflow efficiency.
• SyMRI presents a viable alternative to conventional MRI for SAH evaluation.