Ultrafast acceleration of Synthetic MRI acquisition while maintaining quantitative values: Validation study

Area of Science:

• Radiology and Medical Imaging
• Biomedical Engineering
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Synthetic MRI (SyMRI) offers valuable clinical and research insights but is limited by long acquisition times (5-6 minutes).
• Acute neurological conditions necessitate rapid imaging, posing a challenge for conventional SyMRI protocols.
• Developing accelerated SyMRI techniques is crucial for expanding its clinical utility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate an ultrafast SyMRI acceleration algorithm using Smart Speed AI (SSAI).
• To identify quantitative MRI parameters that maintain high agreement with conventional protocols under accelerated acquisition.
• To assess the feasibility of 1-minute SyMRI acquisition for clinical applications.

Main Methods:

• Ten healthy volunteers underwent 3.0T MRI using a multi-dynamic multi-echo (MDME) sequence.
• Three imaging protocols were compared: 5.5-min SENSE, 4-min SSAI, and 1-min SSAI.
• Quantitative parameters (R1, R2, T1, T2, PD) and ROI standard deviations were analyzed using Bland-Altman, linear mixed-effects, and ICC analyses.

Main Results:

• No significant differences were found for R2, T2, and PD values between acquisition methods.
• R2 and T2 values showed no significant differences across 15 anatomical regions between acquisition methods.
• Standard deviation within ROIs decreased with shorter acquisition times, indicating improved precision.

Conclusions:

• Ultrafast SyMRI with SSAI, particularly the 1-minute protocol, demonstrates high agreement for R2 and T2 values.
• Accelerated SyMRI maintains quantitative accuracy, making it suitable for time-critical neurological imaging.
• This validates the potential of ultrafast SyMRI for broader clinical and research applications.