Magnetic resonance image reconstruction using trained geometric directions in 2D redundant wavelets domain and non-convex optimization

Reducing scanning time is significantly important for MRI. Compressed sensing has shown promising results by undersampling the k-space data to speed up imaging. Sparsity of an image plays an important role in compressed sensing MRI to reduce the image artifacts. Recently, the method of patch-based directional wavelets (PBDW) which trains geometric directions from undersampled data has been proposed. It has better performance in preserving image edges than conventional sparsifying transforms. However, obvious artifacts are presented in the smooth region when the data are highly undersampled. In addition, the original PBDW-based method does not hold obvious improvement for radial and fully 2D random sampling patterns. In this paper, the PBDW-based MRI reconstruction is improved from two aspects: 1) An efficient non-convex minimization algorithm is modified to enhance image quality; 2) PBDW are extended into shift-invariant discrete wavelet domain to enhance the ability of transform on sparsifying piecewise smooth image features. Numerical simulation results on vivo magnetic resonance images demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the original PBDW in terms of removing artifacts and preserving edges.     

Intravoxel incoherent motion imaging of the kidney: alterations in diffusion and perfusion in patients with renal dysfunction

Purpose

To investigate the relationship between estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and parameters calculated using intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) imaging of the kidneys.

Materials and Methods

We studied 365 patients, divided into 4 groups based on eGFR levels (mL/min/1.73 m²): group 1, eGFR ≥ 80(n = 80); group 2, eGFR 60–80 (n = 156); group 3, eGFR 30–60 (n = 114); and group 4 ,eGFR < 30 (n = 15). IVIM imaging was used to acquire diffusion-weighted images at 12 b values. The diffusion coefficient of pure molecular diffusion (D), the diffusion coefficient of microcirculation or perfusion (D*), and perfusion fraction (f) were compared among the groups using group 1 as control.

Results

In the renal cortex, D* values were significantly lower in groups 2, 3, and 4 than in group 1. The D value of renal cortex was significantly low in only group 3. In the renal medulla, the D* and D values were significantly lower only in groups 2 and 3, respectively.

Conclusion

As renal dysfunction progresses, renal perfusion might be reduced earlier and affected more than molecular diffusion in the renal cortex. These changes are effectively detected by IVIM MR imaging.     

Hyperspectral Imaging in the Medical Field: Present and Future

Abstract

Hyperspectral imaging is an optical method that provides a large amount of information about the investigated object. Its medical applications are reviewed in this article, including tumor delimitation and identification, assessing tissue perfusion and its pathological conditions (including some complications like diabetic foot ulceration), making accurate surgical decisions, evaluating the health of dental structures, etc. Many of the articles show very promising results that required brief comments by the authors. It is clear that choosing the appropriate hyperspectral imaging system for each medical field, together with the most reliable hyperspectral image processing methods, are the main goals of future studies, before hyperspectral imaging becomes a widely applicable evaluation method in medicine. The authors try to answer some questions on this topic and set up some directions for future research.     

Evaluation of ADC measurements among solid pancreatic masses by respiratory-triggered diffusion-weighted MR imaging with inversion-recovery fat-suppression technique at 3.0 T

Purpose

The objective of this paper was to investigate the value of apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs) for differential diagnosis among solid pancreatic masses using respiratory triggered diffusion-weighted MR imaging with inversion-recovery fat-suppression technique (RT-IR-DWI) at 3.0 T.

Materials and Methods

20 normal volunteers and 72 patients (Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma [PDCA, n = 30], mass-forming pancreatitis [MFP, n = 15], solid pseudopapillary neoplasm [SPN, n = 12], and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor[PNET, n = 15]) underwent RT-IR-DWI (b values: 0 and 600 s/mm²) at 3.0 T. Results were correlated with histopathologic data and follow-up imaging. ADC values among different types of pancreatic tissue were statistically analyzed and compared.

Results

Statistical difference was noticed in ADC values among normal pancreas, MFP, PDCA, SPN and PNET by ANOVA (p < .001). Normal pancreas had the highest ADC value, then followed by PNET, PDCA, MFP and SPN. There was noticeable statistical difference in ADC values among PDCA, MFP and normal pancreas by Least Significant Difference (LSD) (p < .001). ADC of SPN was statistically lower than that of PNET (p = 0.1800 × 10^− 4), PDCA (p = 0.0300 × 10^− 4) and normal pancreas (p = 0.0007 × 10^− 4). ADC of PNET was statistically lower than that of normal pancreas (p = 0.0360) and higher than that of MFP (p = 9.3000 × 10^− 4).

Conclusions

ADC measurements using RT-IR-DWI at 3.0 T may aid to disclose the histopathological pattern of normal pancreas and solid pancreatic masses, which may be helpful in characterizing solid pancreatic lesions.     

High spatial and angular resolution diffusion-weighted imaging reveals forniceal damage related to memory impairment

Introduction

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), particularly those measures associated with a specific white matter pathway, have consistently shown correlations with function. This study sought to investigate correlations between DTI measures in the fornix and common cognitive deficits in MS patients, including episodic memory, working memory and attention.

Materials and Methods

Patients with MS and group age- and sex-matched controls underwent high-resolution diffusion scanning (1-mm isotropic voxels) and cognitive testing. Manually drawn forniceal regions of interest were applied to individual maps of tensor-derived measures, and mean values of transverse diffusivity (TD), mean diffusivity (MD), longitudinal diffusivity (LD) and fractional anisotropy (FA) were calculated.

Results

In 40 patients with MS [mean age±S.D.= 42.55±9.1 years; Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS)=2.0±1.2; Multiple Sclerosis Functional Composite (MSFC) score=0.38±0.46] and 20 healthy controls (mean age±S.D.= 41.35±9.7 years; EDSS=0.0±0; MSFC score=0.74±0.24), we found that FA, MD and TD values in the fornix were significantly different between groups (P< .03), and patient performance on the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R) was correlated with DTI measures (P< .03).

Discussion

These results are consistent with findings of axonal degeneration in MS and support the use of DTI as an indicator of disease progression.     

Objective evaluation of acute adverse events and image quality of gadolinium-based contrast agents (gadobutrol and gadobenate dimeglumine) by blinded evaluation. Pilot study

Purpose

The purpose was to objectively evaluate a recently FDA-approved gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA) in comparison to our standard GBCA for acute adverse events and image quality by blinded evaluation.

Methods

Evaluation was made of a recently FDA-approved GBCA, gadobutrol (Gadavist; Bayer), in comparison to our standard GBCA, gadobenate dimeglumine (MultiHance; Bracco), in an IRB- and HIPAA-compliant study. Both the imaging technologist and patient were not aware of the brand of the GBCA used. A total of 59 magnetic resonance studies were evaluated (59 patients, 31 men, 28 women, age range of 5–85 years, mean age of 52 years). Twenty-nine studies were performed with gadobutrol (22 abdominal and 7 brain studies), and 30 studies were performed with gadobenate dimeglumine (22 abdominal and 8 brain studies). Assessment was made of acute adverse events focusing on objective observations of vomiting, hives, and moderate and severe reactions. Adequacy of enhancement was rated as poor, fair and good by one of two experienced radiologists who were blinded to the type of agent evaluated.

Results

No patient experienced acute adverse events with either agent. The target minor adverse events of vomiting or hives, and moderate and severe reactions were not observed in any patient. Adequacy of enhancement was rated as good for both agents in all patients.

Conclusions

Objective, blinded evaluation is feasible and readily performable for the evaluation of GBCAs. This proof-of-concept study showed that both GBCAs evaluated exhibited consistent good image quality and no noteworthy adverse events.     

Microstructural changes in irradiated silica based glasses

High voltage electron microscopy studies have been performed on irradiated pure silica and borosilicate glasses to check their long-term stability when these materials are employed near high energy radioactive sources, such as in fusion reactors and during the storage of nuclear waste. The intense energetic beam of electrons produced by the Harwell 1 MeV microscope, ranging from 10¹⁷ to 10²⁰ e/cm²/s has been focused upon specimens of various composition and impurity content at different temperatures up to about 850°C. Pure silica samples have also been bombarded with 46.5 MeV Ni+6 ions at the Variable Energy Cyclotron. It is found that while no significant changes are detectable in pure irradiated silica, clear evidence is present in complex borosilicate glasses for the growing of large defect clusters (over 1000 Å, resembling gas bubbles) after electron doses of about 8.5 × 10¹⁹ e/cm² and dose rates exceeding 2 × 10¹⁸ e/cm²/sec. Moreover, small regions, about 100 Å wide, scattering electrons more than the matrix are also present. The nature of this fine microstructure has been established as a phase separation into crystalline tridymite. The observations are discussed in terms of their dependence on temperature, sample thickness, dose and dose rates.     

Functional Generalized Additive Models

We introduce the functional generalized additive model (FGAM), a novel regression model for association studies between a scalar response and a functional predictor. We model the link-transformed mean response as the integral with respect to t of F{X(t), t} where F( ·, ·) is an unknown regression function and X(t) is a functional covariate. Rather than having an additive model in a finite number of principal components as by Müller and Yao (2008 Müller, H.G., and Yao, F. (2008), “Functional Additive Models,” Journal of the American Statistical Association, 103, 1534–1544.[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), our model incorporates the functional predictor directly and thus our model can be viewed as the natural functional extension of generalized additive models. We estimate F( ·, ·) using tensor-product B-splines with roughness penalties. A pointwise quantile transformation of the functional predictor is also considered to ensure each tensor-product B-spline has observed data on its support. The methods are evaluated using simulated data and their predictive performance is compared with other competing scalar-on-function regression alternatives. We illustrate the usefulness of our approach through an application to brain tractography, where X(t) is a signal from diffusion tensor imaging at position, t, along a tract in the brain. In one example, the response is disease-status (case or control) and in a second example, it is the score on a cognitive test. The FGAM is implemented in R in the refund package. There are additional supplementary materials available online.     

MR动态增强联合扩散加权成像技术在乳腺疾病诊断中的价值

目的探讨乳腺MR动态增强扫描联合扩散加权成像技术在乳腺疾病影像诊断中的价值。方法对48例女性乳腺患者进行MRI检查,先进行双侧乳腺常规MRI平扫,再进行双侧乳腺扩散加权平面回波（EPI）序列扫描,最后行乳腺动态增强扫描。通过后处理,得到病灶处表观弥散系数（ADC）值及时间-信号强度曲线。结果根据时间-信号强度曲线特点及ADC值,结合常规MRI形态学特点进行良、恶性病变诊断。MRI诊断为恶性肿瘤19例,良性病变29例。手术或活检病理结果证实MRI诊断为恶性肿瘤的19例患者中,18例为恶性肿瘤,另外1例为良性肿瘤（旺炽性腺瘤）;MRI诊断为良性病变的29例患者,手术或病理活检均证实为良性病变。MRI区分乳腺良、恶性病变的准确率为97.9%（47/48）,与手术或病理活检准确率（100%）比较差异无统计学意义（字2=0.044,P=0.834）。结论动态增强扫描联合扩散加权成像技术,可提高乳腺疾病影像诊断准确率。