著者
池口 裕昭 庄内 孝春 巳上 綾 矢澤 夏佳 高橋 正 山田 幸二
出版者
公益社団法人 日本放射線技術学会
雑誌
日本放射線技術学会雑誌 (ISSN:03694305)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.69, no.1, pp.71-79, 2013-01-20 (Released:2013-01-25)
参考文献数
11
被引用文献数
3 5

Purpose: Homogeneity of static magnetic field (B0) is unstable for head and neck magnetic resonance (MR) examination; consequently, chemical shift selective fat suppression becomes inhomogeneous. There is a commercially available additional pad to attenuate the B0 inhomogeneity, but it is expensive. It has been reported that uncooked rice can be used as a material in the pad, but it has hygienic and weight problems. We searched for a material which can replace the uncooked rice, and evaluated its performance. Method: After filling various materials into the cylindrical phantom, each material was evaluated by image distortion of gradient filed echo and spin echo single-shot echo planar images. A prototype additional pad was made with a material which showed less image distortion in the phantom experiment and is easily available in clinical examination. For comparison, an uncooked rice pad with the same volume was also prepared. Fat suppressed head and neck magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of normal volunteers were visually compared when the three additional pads, including the commercial product, were used or not. Result: The polystyrene ball bullet (BB bullet) was adopted as a material for the additional pad. The improvement of the fat suppression in the head and neck MRI was almost the same between the three additional pads. BB bullet pad was the lightest. Conclusion: BB bullet can be used as a material of additional pad attenuating the B0 inhomogeneity instead of uncooked rice.
著者
池口 裕昭 庄内 孝春 渡部 智仁 縄手 満 矢野 竜太朗
出版者
公益社団法人 日本放射線技術学会
雑誌
日本放射線技術学会雑誌 (ISSN:03694305)
巻号頁・発行日
vol.76, no.12, pp.1256-1265, 2020 (Released:2020-12-20)
参考文献数
14

T2 fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) using inversion recovery pulse to suppress cerebrospinal fluid signal needs adequate T1 recovery time after data acquisition, otherwise, the T2-weighted contrast in brain tissue will get lower. Over 10000 ms of repetition time (TR) is recommended for the 1.5 T MR scanner, so it is difficult to shorten the imaging time. We verified whether T2 FLAIR combined with the magnetization transfer contrast (MTC) pulse shows better gray-to-white matter (GM/WM) and lesion-to-normal tissue contrasts even when the TR is shortened compared to the conventional T2 FLAIR. Optimal parameters of the MTC pulse were determined with a self-produced phantom, which modeled on cerebral cortical gray and white matters. GM/WM contrasts of the phantom were measured in T2 FLAIR with the MTC pulse while decreasing TR gradually from 10000 ms to 6500 ms. Although GM/WM contrast of the phantom in T2 FLAIR with the MTC pulse gradually decreased as the TR got shortened, the T2 FLAIR with the MTC pulse of 6500 ms of TR still showed 27% higher contrast than the conventional T2 FLAIR (TR 10000 ms). GM/WM contrast in T2 FLAIR with the MTC pulse was improved also in healthy volunteers, but improvement in thalamo-medullary contrast was less than that of cerebral cortico-medullary and putamino-medullary contrasts. It seems to be because thalamus, which is a deep gray matter, shows a higher MTC effect than other gray matters. Thus, it is necessary to note that the tissue contrast might differ between T2 FLAIR with the MTC pulse and the conventional T2 FLAIR. Because general lesions with an elongated T2 value show lower MTC effect compared to the normal brain tissue, a clinical case with thalamic lesion showed that the lesion-to-normal tissue contrast improved in T2 FLAIR with the MTC pulse of 6500 ms of TR. Although it is necessary to note the difference in contrast between some tissues, T2 FLAIR with the MTC pulse improves GM/WM and lesion-to-normal tissue contrasts even when the TR is shortened compared to the conventional T2 FLAIR, and it enables to shorten the imaging time.