著者

Taro Sugai Kohei Takano Shohei Ouchi Satoshi Ito

出版者

Japanese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.mp.2020-0073, (Released:2021-02-11)

参考文献数

24

被引用文献数

2

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Purpose: To improve the performance of a denoising convolutional neural network (DnCNN) and to make it applicable to images with inhomogeneous noise, a refinement involving an activation function (AF) and an application of the refined method for inhomogeneous-noise images was examined in combination with parallelized image denoising.Methods: Improvements in the DnCNN were performed by three approaches. One is refinement of the AF of each neural network that constructs the DnCNN. Swish was used in the DnCNN instead of rectifier linear unit. Second, blind noise removal was introduced to the DnCNN in order to adapt spatially variant noises. Third, blind noise removal was applied to parallelized image denoising, referred to herein as ParBID. The ParBID procedure is as follows: (1) adjacent 2D slice images are linearly combined to obtained higher peak SNR (PSNR) images, (2) combined images with different weight coefficients are denoised using the blind DnCNN, and (3) denoised combined images are separated into original position images by algebraic calculation.Results: Experimental studies showed that the PSNR and the structural similarity index (SSIM) were improved by using Swish for all noise levels, from 2.5% to 7.5%, as compared to the conventional DnCNN. It was also shown that a well-trained CNN could remove spatially variant noises superimposed on images. Experimental studies with ParBID showed that the greatest PSNR and SSIM improvements were obtained at the middle slice when three slice images were used for linear image combination. More fine structures of images and image contrast remained when the proposed ParBID procedure was used.Conclusion: Swish can improve the denoising performance of the DnCNN, and the denoising performance and effectiveness were further improved by ParBID.

著者

Tetsuya Tsujikawa Akira Makino Hiroshi Oikawa Shota Ishida Tetsuya Mori Yasushi Kiyono Hirohiko Kimura Hidehiko Okazawa

出版者

Japanese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.mp.2020-0129, (Released:2021-02-09)

参考文献数

22

被引用文献数

2

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Purpose: To compare apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) of bone marrow on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) between two fat-suppression techniques, and to evaluate the association between bone-marrow ADCs and the proton density fat fraction (PDFF).Methods: Seventy-seven patients underwent whole-body DWI with short-inversion time inversion-recovery (STIR) (DWISTIR) and/or STIR + selective water-excitation (spectral-spatial RF [SSRF]) (DWISTIR+SSRF). ADCs of lumbar vertebrae (L3 and L4) were compared between DWISTIR and DWISTIR+SSRF, and correlated with the PDFF.Results: Lumbar ADCs obtained by DWISTIR and DWISTIR+SSRF were significantly correlated (L3: r = 0.90, P < 0.0001, L4: r = 0.90, P < 0.0001). Lumbar ADCs (× 10-6 mm2/s) obtained by DWISTIR were significantly lower than those by DWISTIR+SSRF (L3: 479 ± 137 and 490 ± 148, P < 0.05, L4: 456 ± 114 and 471 ± 118, P < 0.005). Residual fat signals were more clearly observed on DWISTIR than on DWISTIR+SSRF. The ADCs of L3 obtained by DWISTIR and DWISTIR+SSRF exhibited significant positive correlations with the PDFF (r = 0.51, P < 0.0001, and r = 0.45, P < 0.0001, respectively), and the ADCs of L4 obtained by DWISTIR and DWISTIR+SSRF exhibited significantly positive correlations with the PDFF (r = 0.40, P < 0.0005, and r = 0.40, P < 0.0005, respectively).Conclusion: Irrespective of different fat-suppression methods, lumbar ADCs were positively correlated with the PDFF, being inconsistent with previous studies. Lumbar ADCs obtained by DWISTIR were significantly lower than those obtained by DWISTIR+SSRF, probably due to residual fat signals on DWISTIR. However, this difference (< 4%) did not explain the positive correlation between lumbar ADC and PDFF.

著者

Masako Ohno Naoki Ohno Tosiaki Miyati Hiroko Kawashima Kazuto Kozaka Yukihiro Matsuura Toshifumi Gabata Satoshi Kobayashi

出版者

Japanese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.mp.2020-0103, (Released:2021-02-09)

参考文献数

50

被引用文献数

3

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Purpose: To obtain detailed information in breast ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and invasive ductal carcinoma (IDC) using triexponential diffusion analysis.Methods: Diffusion-weighted images (DWI) of the breast were obtained using single-shot diffusion echo-planar imaging with 15 b-values. Mean signal intensities at each b-value were measured in the DCIS and IDC lesions and fitted with the triexponential function based on a two-step approach: slow-restricted diffusion coefficient (Ds) was initially determined using a monoexponential function with b-values > 800 s/mm2. The diffusion coefficient of free water at 37°C was assigned to the fast-free diffusion coefficient (Df). Finally, the perfusion-related diffusion coefficient (Dp) was derived using all the b-values. Furthermore, biexponential analysis was performed to obtain the perfusion-related diffusion coefficient (D*) and the perfusion-independent diffusion coefficient (D). Monoexponential analysis was performed to obtain the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). The sensitivity and specificity of the aforementioned diffusion coefficients for distinguishing between DCIS and IDC were evaluated using the pathological results.Results: The Ds, D, and ADC of DCIS were significantly higher than those of IDC (P < 0.01 for all). There was no significant correlation between Dp and Ds, but there was a weak correlation between D* and D. The combination of Dp and Ds showed higher sensitivity and specificity (85.9% and 71.4%, respectively), compared to the combination of D* and D (81.5% and 33.3%, respectively).Conclusion: Triexponential analysis can provide detailed diffusion information for breast tumors that can be used to differentiate between DCIS and IDC.

著者

Sanae Kato Epifanio Bagarinao Haruo Isoda Shuji Koyama Hirohisa Watanabe Satoshi Maesawa Daisuke Mori Kazuhiro Hara Masahisa Katsuno Minoru Hoshiyama Shinji Naganawa Norio Ozaki Gen Sobue

出版者

Japanese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.mp.2020-0081, (Released:2020-10-27)

参考文献数

34

被引用文献数

4

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Purpose: The estimation of functional connectivity (FC) measures using resting state functional MRI (fMRI) is often affected by head motion during functional imaging scans. Head motion is more common in the elderly than in young participants and could therefore affect the evaluation of age-related changes in brain networks. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the influence of head motion in FC estimation when evaluating age-related changes in brain networks.Methods: This study involved 132 healthy volunteers divided into 3 groups: elderly participants with high motion (OldHM, mean age (±SD) = 69.6 (±5.31), N = 44), elderly participants with low motion (OldLM, mean age (±SD) = 68.7 (±4.59), N = 43), and young adult participants with low motion (YugLM, mean age (±SD) = 27.6 (±5.26), N = 45). Head motion was quantified using the mean of the framewise displacement of resting state fMRI data. After preprocessing all resting state fMRI datasets, several resting state networks (RSNs) were extracted using independent component analysis (ICA). In addition, several network metrics were also calculated using network analysis. These FC measures were then compared among the 3 groups.Results: In ICA, the number of voxels with significant differences in RSNs was higher in YugLM vs. OldLM comparison than in YugLM vs. OldHM. In network analysis, all network metrics showed significant (P < 0.05) differences in comparisons involving low vs. high motion groups (OldHM vs. OldLM and OldHM vs. YugLM). However, there was no significant (P > 0.05) difference in the comparison involving the low motion groups (OldLM vs. YugLM).Conclusion: Our findings showed that head motion during functional imaging could significantly affect the evaluation of age-related brain network changes using resting state fMRI data.

著者

Mungunkhuyag MAJIGSUREN Takashi ABE Teruyoshi KAGEJI Kenji MATSUZAKI Mayumi TAKEUCHI Seiji IWAMOTO Yoichi OTOMI Naoto UYAMA Shinji NAGAHIRO Masafumi HARADA

出版者

Japanese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.15, no.1, pp.34-40, 2016-01-01 (Released:2016-01-12)

参考文献数

21

被引用文献数

10 21

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Purpose: T1-Cube (GE HealthCare) is a relatively new 3-dimensional (3D) fast spin-echo (FSE)-based magnetic resonance (MR) imaging sequence that uses a variable flip angle to acquire gap-free volume scans. We compared the gadolinium enhancement characteristics of a heterogeneous population of brain tumors imaged by T1-Cube and then 3D fast spoiled gradient recall acquisition in steady state (3D FSPGR) 3-tesla MR imaging to identify the superior modality for specific diagnostic purposes.Methods: We examined 61 lesions from 32 patients using the 2 sequences after administration of gadopentetic acid (Gd-DTPA; 0.1 mmol/kg). Two neuroradiologists independently measured each lesion twice using a region-of-interest (ROI) method. We measured the contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), the difference in signal intensity (SI) between the tumor and normal white matter relative to the standard deviation (SD) of the SI within the lesion, for both post-contrast 3D FSPGR and post-contrast T1-Cube images of the same tumor and compared modality-specific CNRs for all tumors and in subgroups defined by tumor size, enhancement ratio, and histopathology.Results: The mean CNR was significantly higher on T1-Cube images than 3D FSPGR images for the total tumor population (1.85 ± 0.97 versus 1.12 ± 1.05, P < 0.01) and the histologic types, i.e., metastasis (P < 0.01) and lymphoma (P < 0.05). The difference in CNR was even larger for smaller tumors in the metastatic group (4.95 to 23.5 mm2) (P < 0.01). In contrast, mean CNRs did not differ between modalities for high grade glioma and meningioma.Conclusions: Gadolinium enhancement of brain tumors was generally higher when imaged by T1-Cube than 3D FSPGR, and T1-Cube with Gd enhancement may be superior to 3D FSPGR for detecting smaller metastatic tumors.

著者

Shohei Ouchi Satoshi Ito

出版者

Japanese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.mp.2019-0139, (Released:2020-07-02)

参考文献数

28

被引用文献数

8

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Purpose: A deep residual learning convolutional neural network (DRL-CNN) was applied to improve image quality and speed up the reconstruction of compressed sensing magnetic resonance imaging. The reconstruction performances of the proposed method was compared with iterative reconstruction methods.Methods: The proposed method adopted a DRL-CNN to learn the residual component between the input and output images (i.e., aliasing artifacts) for image reconstruction. The CNN-based reconstruction was compared with iterative reconstruction methods. To clarify the reconstruction performance of the proposed method, reconstruction experiments using 1D-, 2D-random under-sampling and sampling patterns that mix random and non-random under-sampling were executed. The peak-signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) and the structural similarity index (SSIM) were examined for various numbers of training images, sampling rates, and numbers of training epochs.Results: The experimental results demonstrated that reconstruction time is drastically reduced to 0.022 s per image compared with that for conventional iterative reconstruction. The PSNR and SSIM were improved as the coherence of the sampling pattern increases. These results indicate that a deep CNN can learn coherent artifacts and is effective especially for cases where the randomness of k-space sampling is rather low. Simulation studies showed that variable density non-random under-sampling was a promising sampling pattern in 1D-random under-sampling of 2D image acquisition.Conclusion: A DRL-CNN can recognize and predict aliasing artifacts with low incoherence. It was demonstrated that reconstruction time is significantly reduced and the improvement in the PSNR and SSIM is higher in 1D-random under-sampling than in 2D. The requirement of incoherence for aliasing artifacts is different from that for iterative reconstruction.

著者

Hisayoshi Araki Takeshi Yoshizako Rika Yoshida Mitsunari Maruyama Noriyoshi Ishikawa Hajime Kitagaki

出版者

Japanese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.ici.2019-0028, (Released:2019-05-07)

参考文献数

2

被引用文献数

1

著者

Stéren Chabert Jorge Verdu Gamaliel Huerta Cristian Montalba Pablo Cox Rodrigo Riveros Sergio Uribe Rodrigo Salas Alejandro Veloz

出版者

Japanese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.mp.2019-0061, (Released:2019-10-15)

参考文献数

44

被引用文献数

12

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Purpose: Intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) analysis has attracted the interest of the clinical community due to its close relationship with microperfusion. Nevertheless, there is no clear reference protocol for its implementation; one of the questions being which b-value distribution to use. This study aimed to stress the importance of the sampling scheme and to show that an optimized b-value distribution decreases the variance associated with IVIM parameters in the brain with respect to a regular distribution in healthy volunteers.Methods: Ten volunteers were included in this study; images were acquired on a 1.5T MR scanner. Two distributions of 16 b-values were used: one considered ‘regular’ due to its close association with that used in other studies, and the other considered ‘optimized’ according to previous studies. IVIM parameters were adjusted according to the bi-exponential model, using two-step method. Analysis was undertaken in ROI defined using in the Automated Anatomical Labeling atlas, and parameters distributions were compared in a total of 832 ROI.Results: Maps with fewer speckles were obtained with the ‘optimized’ distribution. Coefficients of variation did not change significantly for the estimation of the diffusion coefficient D but decreased by approximately 39% for the pseudo-diffusion coefficient estimation and by 21% for the perfusion fraction. Distributions of adjusted parameters were found significantly different in 50% of the cases for the perfusion fraction, in 80% of the cases for the pseudo-diffusion coefficient and 17% of the cases for the diffusion coefficient. Observations across brain areas show that the range of average values for IVIM parameters is smaller in the ‘optimized’ case.Conclusion: Using an optimized distribution, data are sampled in a way that the IVIM signal decay is better described and less variance is obtained in the fitted parameters. The increased precision gained could help to detect small variations in IVIM parameters.

著者

Akihiko Wada Kohei Tsuruta Ryusuke Irie Koji Kamagata Tomoko Maekawa Shohei Fujita Saori Koshino Kanako Kumamaru Michimasa Suzuki Atsushi Nakanishi Masaaki Hori Shigeki Aoki

出版者

Japanese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.mp.2018-0091, (Released:2018-12-03)

参考文献数

40

被引用文献数

22

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Purpose: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) are representative disorders of dementia of the elderly and the neuroimaging has contributed to early diagnosis by estimation of alterations of brain volume, blood flow and metabolism. A brain network analysis by MR imaging (MR connectome) is a recently developed technique and can estimate the dysfunction of the brain network in AD and DLB. A graph theory which is a major technique of network analysis is useful for a group study to extract the feature of disorders, but is not necessarily suitable for the disorder differentiation at the individual level. In this investigation, we propose a deep learning technique as an alternative method of the graph analysis for recognition and classification of AD and DLB at the individual subject level.Materials and Methods: Forty-eight brain structural connectivity data of 18 AD, 8 DLB and 22 healthy controls were applied to the machine learning consisting of a six-layer convolution neural network (CNN) model. Estimation of the deep learning model to classify AD, DLB and non-AD/DLB was performed using the 4-fold cross-validation method.Results: The accuracy, average precision and recall of our CNN model were 0.73, 0.78 and 0.73, and the specificity precision and recall were 0.68 and 0.79 in AD, 0.94 and 0.65 in DLB and 0.73 and 0.75 in non-AD/DLB. The triangular probability map of the MR connectome revealed the probability of AD, DLB and non-AD/DLB in each subject.Conclusion: Our preliminary investigation revealed the adaptation of deep learning to the MR connectome and proposed its utility in the differentiation of dementia disorders at the individual subject level.

著者

Shinji Naganawa Toshiaki Taoka Hisashi Kawai Masahiro Yamazaki Kojiro Suzuki

出版者

日本磁気共鳴医学会

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.mp.2017-0088, (Released:2017-09-29)

参考文献数

31

被引用文献数

9

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Purpose: Circumventricular organs (CVOs) lack a blood brain barrier and are also called “brain windows”. Among CVOs, the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT) is an osmotic regulator involved in the release of vasopressin. In a previous study of healthy subjects, it was reported that contrast enhancement in the OVLT can be recognized in only 34% of 3 Tesla thin slice contrast-enhanced T1-weighted images. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the leakage of gadolinium contrast from the OVLT in healthy subjects using heavily T2-weighted three dimensional-fluid attenuated inversion recovery (3D-FLAIR) (HF) imaging.Methods: Eight healthy male subjects were included in this study. A standard dose (0.1 mmol/kg) of gadoteridol was intravenously administered. magnetic resonance cisternography (MRC) and HF were obtained before and 0.5, 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6 h after the injection. Enhancement of the OVLT including the surrounding cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) was measured by manually drawing a rectangular region of interest (ROI) centered on the OVLT. The ROI was copied to the HF image and the signal intensity was measured. The signal intensity ratio (SIR) was obtained by dividing the signal intensity value of the OVLT ROI by that of the midbrain.Results: The differences between the mean SIR at pre-contrast and those at 0.5, 1.5, 3, 4.5, and 6 h were significant (P < 0.05). The mean SIR at 0.5 h was higher than those at all other time points (P < 0.05).Conclusion: Using HF imaging, enhancement around the OVLT was observed in all subjects at 0.5 h after intravenous administration of single dose gadoteridol.

著者

Yoshimasa MATSUDA Shinya ONO Yosuke OTAKE Shinya HANDA Katsumi KOSE Tomoyuki HAISHI Shigeto YAMADA Chikako UWABE Kohei SHIOTA

出版者

日本磁気共鳴医学会

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.6, no.3, pp.139-146, 2007 (Released:2007-11-20)

参考文献数

15

被引用文献数

18 38

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Using 4 and 8-channel super-parallel magnetic resonance (MR) microscopes with a horizontal bore 2.34T superconducting magnet developed for 3-dimensional MR microscopy of the large Kyoto Collection of Human Embryos, we acquired T1-weighted 3D images of 1204 embryos at a spatial resolution of (40 μm)3 to (150 μm)3 in about 2 years. Similarity of image contrast between the T1-weighted images and stained anatomical sections indicated that T1-weighted 3D images could be used for an anatomical 3D image database for human embryology.

著者

Go URUMA Keiji HASHIMOTO Masahiro ABO

出版者

日本磁気共鳴医学会

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.2014-0104, (Released:2015-02-12)

被引用文献数

5

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Purpose: We developed a new and convenient method that employs voxel-based morphometry (VBM) to evaluate regional reduction in the volume of white matter after diffuse axonal injury (DAI).Methods: We studied 29 patients with moderate cognitive disability after DAI. Each subject underwent 3-dimensional volumetric magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Images were preprocessed automatically using stand-alone software running on a Windows PC for VBM of volumetric MR imaging utilizing a statistical parametric mapping (SPM) version 8 software engine and an algorithm for diffeomorphic anatomic registration through exponentiated lie algebra (DARTEL). We then computed a Z-score for all coordinates on the white matter, which represented the relative reduction in white matter volume. Finally, we used voxel-based stereotactic extraction estimation (vbSEE) to compute the extent of regional reduction in the volume of white matter (rWMVR) for each region of interest (ROI), defined as the rate of coordinates with Z-scores exceeding 2.0 in the ROI. For each ROI, we used Pearson’s correlation analysis to examine the correlation between the extent of regional volume reduction and patient scores on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale III (WAIS-III).Results: We detected marked rWMVR in several ROIs, including the corpus callosum, and rWMVR correlated significantly with performance IQ and processing speed index in the splenium of the corpus callosum.Conclusions: The results indicate the utility of our applications for the daily clinical evaluation of DAI. That they can be used on a PC and allow acquisition of volumetric data from standard MR images are their advantages.

著者

Takafumi HAYASHI Akihiko WADA Nobue UCHIDA Hajime KITAGAKI

出版者

日本磁気共鳴医学会

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.8, no.1, pp.33-38, 2009 (Released:2009-04-01)

参考文献数

22

被引用文献数

4 7

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Background: Imaging diagnosis of Alzheimer disease (AD), the leading cause of dementia, requires evaluation of the extent of hippocampal atrophy. Coronal magnetic resonance (MR) images of patients with AD often demonstrate outward rotation of the hippocampus that is altered from a long horizontal elliptical to a long vertical elliptical shape. Such rotation may be related to the disease process of AD. Purpose and Methods: To determine whether hippocampal rotation is associated with AD, we investigated MR images from 11 patients with AD and 11 normal controls, measuring the hippocampal angle (HA) and the volume of the left hippocampus on coronal T1-weighted MR images. The HA is the angle between a horizontal line orthogonal to the falx cerebri and the uncal sulcus line between the deepest point of the uncal sulcus and the point nearest to the side of the ambient cistern in the uncal gyrus facing the uncal sulcus. The HA is measured on the most rostral slice in which the uncal sulcus can be identified and increases with hippocampal rotation. Results: We found correlation between the HA and standardized hippocampal volume in the AD group, but not in controls. Conclusion: Hippocampal rotation is a new marker associated with the pathology of AD.

著者

Tomone AMATSUBO Daijiro YANAGISAWA Shigehiro MORIKAWA Hiroyasu TAGUCHI Ikuo TOOYAMA

出版者

日本磁気共鳴医学会

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.9, no.3, pp.95-99, 2010 (Released:2010-09-27)

参考文献数

23

被引用文献数

9 21

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The formation of senile plaques followed by deposition of amyloid β peptides (Aβ) are the earliest pathological changes of Alzheimer's disease (AD); thus, detection of the plaques remains the most important early diagnostic indicator of AD. Amyloid imaging is a noninvasive technique for visualizing senile plaques in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's using positron emission tomography (PET) or magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. Several types of probes have been developed for PET, but few ligands have been developed specifically for MR imaging detection of amyloid plaques. This review presents recent advances in amyloid imaging using MR imaging and includes our studies.

著者

Mayumi TAKEUCHI Kenji MATSUZAKI Yoshimi BANDO Mika SAKAKI Hiroyuki FURUMOTO Masafumi HARADA

出版者

日本磁気共鳴医学会

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.2013-0078, (Released:2014-07-02)

被引用文献数

3

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Villoglandular papillary adenocarcinoma (VGPA) is a rare subtype of cervical adenocarcinoma that generally affects young women and has a favorable prognosis. Its preoperative diagnosis is important to avoid excessive surgery. We report the magnetic resonance (MR) findings of a case in which the cervical tumor showed a fern-leaf-like appearance on high resolution T2-weighted images obtained at 3 tesla. MR imaging clearly showed this pathological feature that may suggest this disease.

著者

Masami YONEYAMA Taro TAKAHARA Thomas C. KWEE Masanobu NAKAMURA Takashi TABUCHI

出版者

Japanese Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine

雑誌

Magnetic Resonance in Medical Sciences (ISSN:13473182)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.2012-0063, (Released:2013-05-10)

被引用文献数

28 68

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Purpose: To introduce, optimize, and assess the feasibility of a new scheme to rapidly acquire high-resolution volumetric neurographic images using a three-dimensional turbo spin-echo sequence combined with a diffusion-weighted pre-pulse called improved motion-sensitized driven equilibrium (iMSDE): Diffusion-prepared MR Neurography (D-prep MRN). Methods: In order to optimize the signal suppression of blood vessels and muscle at D-prep MRN, coronal lumbosacral plexus images were acquired in five volunteers at 3T, and the following parameters were examined: iMSDE gradient-strength (b-value) of 0, 2 and 10 s/mm2 (with the aim to suppress blood vessels) and iMSDE preparation duration (iMSDEprep-time) of 18, 50 and 100 ms (with the aim to suppress muscle signal). Subsequently, the feasibility of the optimized D-prep MRN sequence in visualizing the brachial plexus, lumbosacral plexus, and cranial nerves was evaluated in 5 healthy volunteers. Results: A higher b-value of 10 s/mm2 was better in signal suppression of blood vessels, whereas an intermediate iMSDEprep-time of 50 ms provided the best compromise between suppression of muscle signal and minimization of signal loss of nerves. With these parameters, the normal nerve structures showed high signal intensity, while the blood vessels and muscles were effectively suppressed. The optimized D-prep MRN sequence clearly showed the three-dimensional trajectory of the brachial plexus, lumbosacral plexus, and cranial nerves. Conclusion: D-prep MRN was introduced and optimized, and clearly showed detailed anatomy of the brachial plexus, lumbosacral plexus, and cranial nerves. These results suggest that the D-prep MRN can be used for fast, high-resolution, volumetric imaging of the peripheral nervous system.