Multiecho Fat-Water Spiral MR Elastography With Distributed Encoding for Simultaneously Imaging Brain and Skull...

Area of Science:

• Medical Imaging
• Biophysics
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Traumatic brain injury (TBI) computational models require accurate brain-skull displacement data.
• Current Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE) methods may not fully capture simultaneous brain and skull motion.

Purpose of the Study:

• Introduce a novel multiecho, multishot spiral MRE sequence.
• Enable simultaneous imaging of brain and skull displacement.
• Utilize joint fat-water reconstruction and distributed motion encoding.

Main Methods:

• Implemented multiple echo times within a high-resolution multishot spiral MRE sequence.
• Captured both water-based brain and fat-based skull signals in a single acquisition.
• Optimized a joint fat-water reconstruction and incorporated distributed motion encoding to reduce scan time.

Main Results:

• Successfully imaged brain and skull displacement concurrently.
• Validated the sequence against a reference EPI MRE scan, showing no significant differences in mechanical properties.
• Observed variable relative brain-skull displacement, with greater brain motion amplitude anteriorly.

Conclusions:

• The developed multiecho fat-water spiral MRE sequence is a promising in vivo tool.
• This technique can quantify brain-skull displacement.
• It holds potential for enhancing computational modeling of TBI.