Reliability assessment of accelerated MR sequences for the estimation of structural and vascular markers in dementia

Estimating the volume of brain structures and white matter lesions has been demonstrated to be crucial as diagnostic markers of dementia. In this context, employing accelerated MR sequences could be particularly suitable for deploying comfortable imaging protocols. The aims of the study are twofold. First, the quality of accelerated structural and FLAIR sequences will be evaluated using conventional sequences as a comparative reference. Second, their concordance in the estimation of diagnostic markers will be assessed. Forty-six dementia patients underwent brain 3T MR protocol, including conventional and accelerated 3D T1w and 3D FLAIR sequences. The image quality was assessed using peak signal-to-noise ratio, structural similarity index measure, and mean squared error. The intraclass correlation and the Dice similarity coefficients were used to compare the markers. The quality assessment showed high agreement between accelerated and conventional sequences. Excellent concordance was demonstrated in the quantification of brain structures and white matter lesions. The results demonstrate the reliability of diagnostic markers of dementia derived from accelerated MR sequences, thereby supporting their use in clinical practice.