Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Lecler, Augustin
• Bouzad, C.
• Deschamps, R.
• Maizeroi, F.
• Sadik, J. C.
• Gueguen, A.
• Gout, O.
• Picard, H.
• Savatovsky, J.

Titel

Optimizing 3D FLAIR to detect MS lesions: pushing past factory settings for precise results

Ist Teil von

• Journal of neurology, 2019-11, Vol.266 (11), p.2786-2795

Ort / Verlag

Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

Erscheinungsjahr

2019

Quelle

MEDLINE

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Background To assess the diagnostic value of three 3D FLAIR sequences with differing repetition-times (TR) at 3-Tesla when detecting multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions. Methods In this prospective study, approved by the institutional review board, 27 patients with confirmed MS were prospectively included. One radiologist performed manual segmentations of all high-signal intensity lesions using three 3D FLAIR data sets with different TR of 4800 ms (“FLAIR 4800 ”), 8000 ms (“FLAIR 8000 ”) and 10,000 ms (“FLAIR 10,000 ”) and two radiologists double-checked it. The main judgment criterion was the overall number of lesions; secondary objectives were the assessment of lesion location, as well as measuring contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). A non-parametric Wilcoxon’s test was used to compare the differing FLAIR. Results The FLAIR 8000 and FLAIR 10,000 detected significantly more overall lesions per patient as compared with the FLAIR 4800 [116.1 (± 61.7) ( p  = 0.02) and 115.8 (± 56.3) ( p  = 0.03) versus 99.2 (± 66.9), respectively]. The FLAIR 8000 and FLAIR 10,000 detected four and eight times more cortical or juxta-cortical lesions per patient as compared with FLAIR 4800 [1.6 (± 2.2) ( p  = 0.001) and 4.1 (± 5.9) ( p  = 6 × 10 –5 ) versus 0.4 (± 1.1), respectively]. CNR was significantly correlated to the TR value. It was significantly higher with FLAIR 10,000 than it was with FLAIR 8000 and FLAIR 4800 [16.3 (± 3.5) versus 15 (± 2.4) ( p  = 0.01) and 12 (± 2.2) ( p  = 2 × 10 –6 ), respectively] Conclusion An optimized 3D FLAIR with a long TR significantly improved both overall lesion detection and CNR in MS patients as compared to a 3D FLAIR with factory settings.