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Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Skeletal Muscle Disease
Published on: December 18, 2016
A scan-specific quality control acquisition for clinical whole-body (WB) MRI protocols
Sam Keaveney1,2, Georgina Hopkinson1, Julia E Markus3
1MRI Unit, Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Objective.Image quality in whole-body MRI (WB-MRI) may be degraded by faulty radiofrequency (RF) coil elements or mispositioning of the coil arrays. Phantom-based quality control (QC) is used to identify broken RF coil elements but the frequency of these acquisitions is limited by scanner and staff availability. This work aimed to develop a scan-specific QC acquisition and processing pipeline to detect broken RF coil elements, which is sufficiently rapid to be added to the clinical WB-MRI protocol. The purpose of this is to improve the quality of WB-MRI by reducing the number of patient examinations conducted with suboptimal equipment.Approach.A rapid acquisition (14 s additional acquisition time per imaging station) was developed that identifies broken RF coil elements by acquiring images from each individual coil element and using the integral body coil. This acquisition was added to one centre's clinical WB-MRI protocol for one year (892 examinations) to evaluate the effect of this scan-specific QC. To demonstrate applicability in multi-centre imaging trials, the technique was also implemented on scanners from three manufacturers.Main results. Over the course of the study RF coil elements were flagged as potentially broken on five occasions, with the faults confirmed in four of those cases. The method had a precision of 80% and a recall of 100% for detecting faulty RF coil elements. The coil array positioning measurements were consistent across scanners and have been used to define the expected variation in signal.Significance. The technique demonstrated here can identify faulty RF coil elements and positioning errors and is a practical addition to the clinical WB-MRI protocol. This approach was fully implemented on systems from two manufacturers and partially implemented on a third. It has potential to reduce the number of clinical examinations conducted with suboptimal hardware and improve image quality across multi-centre studies.
Insights
A new rapid scan-specific quality control method can detect faulty radiofrequency (RF) coil elements in whole-body MRI (WB-MRI). This improves image quality by ensuring equipment functions optimally before patient scans.
Area of Science:
- Medical Imaging
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging
- Quality Control
Background:
- Whole-body MRI (WB-MRI) image quality can be compromised by faulty radiofrequency (RF) coil elements or improper coil positioning.
- Current phantom-based quality control (QC) methods are limited by scanner and staff availability, restricting their frequency.
- Suboptimal equipment can lead to patient examinations with degraded image quality.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a rapid, scan-specific QC acquisition and processing pipeline for detecting faulty RF coil elements in WB-MRI.
- To integrate this QC pipeline into clinical WB-MRI protocols to minimize examinations with suboptimal equipment.
- To enhance overall WB-MRI image quality and reduce hardware-related issues in multi-center studies.
Main Methods:
- A novel 14-second rapid acquisition protocol was developed, utilizing individual coil element imaging and the integral body coil.
- This scan-specific QC was implemented in a clinical WB-MRI protocol for one year, encompassing 892 examinations.
- The technique's applicability was validated across scanners from three different manufacturers.
Main Results:
- The QC method successfully flagged potentially faulty RF coil elements on five occasions, with four confirmed faults.
- The developed technique demonstrated 80% precision and 100% recall in detecting faulty RF coil elements.
- Coil array positioning measurements were consistent across scanners, establishing expected signal variation parameters.
Conclusions:
- The developed scan-specific QC technique is a practical and effective addition to clinical WB-MRI protocols.
- This method can reliably identify faulty RF coil elements and coil positioning errors.
- Implementation has the potential to reduce patient scans with suboptimal hardware and improve multi-center study image quality.
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