• 대한디지털의료영상학회논문지
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• 제9권2호
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• pp.31-38
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• 2007

To evaluate the accuracy and extent in the localization of cerebral motor coutex activation using a gradient- echo echo planar imaging(GE-EPI) compared to spin-echo echo planar iimaging(SE-EPI) on 3T MR imaging. Functional MR imaging of cerebral motor cortex activation was examined in GE-EPI and SE-EPI in five healthy male volunteers. A right finger movement was accomplished with a paradigm of 6 task and rest, periods and the cross-correlation was used for a statistical mapping algorithm. We evaluated any sorts of differenced of the time seried and the signal intensity changes between the rest and task periods obtained with two technoques. The qualitative analysis was distributed with activation sites of large veins and small veins by using two techniques and was found that both the techniques were clinically uesful for delineating large veins and small veins in fMRL Signal intensity charge of the rest and activation periods provided simmilar activations in both methods(GE-EPI : 0.93$\pm$0.11, SE-EPI : 0.80$\pm$.015) but the signal intensity in GE-EPI(133.95$\pm$15.76) was larger than in SE-EPI(74.5$\pm$18.90). The average SNRs of EPI raw data were higher at SMA in SE-EPI(48.54$\pm$12.37) than GE-EPI(41.4$\pm$12.54) and at M1 in SE-EPI(43.24$\pm$11.77) than GE-EPI(38.27$\pm$6.53). The localization of activation voxels of the GE-EPI showed a larger vein but the SE-EPI generally showed small vein. Then the analysis results of the two techniques were used for a statistacal paired student t-test. SE-EPI was found clinically useful for localizing the cerebral moter cortex cativation on 3.0T, but showed a little different activation patterns comparad to GE-EPI. In conclusion, SE-EPI may be feasible and can detect true cortical activation from capillaries and GE-EPI can obtain the large veins in the motor cortex activation on 3T MR imaging.

• Korean Journal of Radiology
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• 제23권2호
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• pp.180-188
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• 2022

Objective: To validate the performance of 3T spin-echo echo-planar imaging (SE-EPI) magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) for staging hepatic fibrosis in a large population, using surgical specimens as the reference standard. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study initially included 310 adults (155 undergoing hepatic resection and 155 undergoing donor hepatectomy) with histopathologic results from surgical liver specimens. They underwent 3T SE-EPI MRE ≤ 3 months prior to surgery. Demographic findings, underlying liver disease, and hepatic fibrosis pathologic stage according to METAVIR were recorded. Liver stiffness (LS) was measured by two radiologists, and inter-reader reproducibility was evaluated using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The mean LS of each fibrosis stage (F0-F4) was calculated in total and for each etiologic subgroup. Comparisons among subgroups were performed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Conover post-hoc test. The cutoff values for fibrosis staging were estimated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. Results: Inter-reader reproducibility was excellent (ICC, 0.98; 95% confidence interval, 0.97-0.99). The mean LS values were 1.91, 2.41, 3.24, and 5.41 kPa in F0-F1 (n = 171), F2 (n = 26), F3 (n = 38), and F4 (n = 72), respectively. The discriminating cutoff values for diagnosing ≥ F2, ≥ F3, and F4 were 2.18, 2.71, and 3.15 kPa, respectively, with the ROC curve areas of 0.97-0.98 (sensitivity 91.2%-95.9%, specificity 90.7%-99.0%). The mean LS was significantly higher in patients with cirrhosis (F4) of nonviral causes, such as primary biliary cirrhosis (9.56 kPa) and alcoholic liver disease (7.17 kPa) than in those with hepatitis B or C cirrhosis (4.28 and 4.92 kPa, respectively). There were no statistically significant differences in LS among the different etiologic subgroups in the F0-F3 stages. Conclusion: The 3T SE-EPI MRE demonstrated high interobserver reproducibility, and our criteria for staging hepatic fibrosis showed high diagnostic performance. LS was significantly higher in patients with non-viral cirrhosis than in those with viral cirrhosis.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제3권2호
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• pp.167-172
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• 1999

목적 : Echo planar image (EPn와 다론 MR 영상기법에서 2시간 이내의 초급성 출혈의 발견율의 차이를 비교해 보고자 한다. 대상 및 방법 : 인위적으로 뇌출혈을 유발시킨 백서 10마리를 대상으로 EP1, 급속 스핀에코 (FSE) T2 강조영상, Fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) 영상, 스펀에코 (SE) Tl 강조영상과 Tl 강조 Gradient echo (GE) 영상을 이용하여, 뇌출혈을 일으킨 2시간 후에 MR 촬영을 하였다. 추가적으로 3마리는 출혈 30분 후에, 6마리는 1시간 후에 각각 EPI와 FSE T2 강조영상을 얻었다. 얻어진 영상에 대한 주관적인 시각적 평가를 하기위하여 세명의 방사선과 의사가 출혈 병변이 어느 MR 영상 기법에서 제일 잘 보이는지를 평가하였다. 정량적인 평가 로는 병변-정상 뇌설질의 대조잡음비(contrast-to-noise ratio, CNR)를 측정하였다. 통계처리는 Wilcoxon-Ranks test를 이용하였다. 결과 : 시각적 평가에서 출혈 병변이 높은 신호강도로 나타난 EP1, FLAIR, FSE T2 영상 중 EPI 영상이 특히 높은 신호강도로 나타나 제일 쉽게 병변이 구별되었다. 정량적인 평가에서 출혈 병 변-정상 뇌설질의 CNR은 EPI와 FLAIR 영상에서 다른 세 영상기법에 비해 통계적으로 유의하게 우월하였다 (p<0.01). 그러나 EPI와 FLAIR 영상간의 CNR은 동계적으로 유의한 차이가 없었다 (p>0.10). 추가적으로 출혈 30분과 1l시간 후 촬영한 모두에서 EPI영상과 FSE T2 강조 영상은 정상에 비해 높은 신호강도를 보여 병변의 구별이 가능하였다. 결론 : 백서에서 유발시킨 초급성기 뇌출혈의 여러 기법의 MR 영상 중 EPI 영상이 영상획득 시간이 가장 빠르면서 시각적 평가와 정량적 평가에서 출혈의 발견율이 가장 높아 출혈의 선속한 진단에 유용할 것으로 생각된다.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.251-258
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• 2019

Purpose: To assess the feasibility of the use of spin-echo echo-planar imaging (SE-EPI) magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in livers of children and young adults. Materials and Methods: Patients (${\leq}20$ years old) who underwent 3T SE-EPI MRE were included retrospectively. Subjects were divided into three groups according to the purpose of the liver MRI: suspicion of fatty liver or focal fat deposition in the liver (FAT group), liver fibrosis after receiving a Kasai operation from biliary atresia (BA group), and hepatic iron deposition after receiving chemotherapy or transfusions (IRON group). Technical failure of MRE was defined when a stiffness map showed no pixel value with a confidence index higher than 95%, and the patients were divided as success and failure groups accordingly. Clinical findings including age, gender, weight, height, and body mass index and magnetic resonance imaging results including proton density fat fraction (PDFF), $T2^*$, and MRE values were assessed. Factors affecting failure of MRE were evaluated and the image quality in wave propagation image and stiffness map was evaluated using the appropriate scores. Results: Among total 240 patients (median 15 years, 211 patients in the FAT, 21 patients in the BA, and 8 patients in the IRON groups), technical failure was noted in six patients in the IRON group (6/8 patients, 75%), while there were no failures noted in the FAT and BA groups. These six patients had $T2^*$ values ranging from 0.9 to 3.8 ms. The image quality scores were not significantly different between the FAT and BA groups (P > 0.999), while the scores were significantly lower in the IRON group (P < 0.001). Conclusion: The 3T SE-EPI MRE in children and young adults had a high technical success rate. The technical failure was occurred in children with decreased $T2^*$ value (${\leq}3.8ms$) from iron deposition.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제26권2호
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• pp.117-124
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• 2022

Purpose: In this study, we provide a way to assess even a slight effect of exercise on trunk-muscle activity. Materials and Methods: Seven healthy male participants (mean age, 24.7 ± 3.2 years; height, 171.2 ± 9.8 cm; and weight, 63.8 ± 11.9 kg) performed 15 sets of an exercise with 20 repetitions of 90° hip and right-knee flexion while lying supine. The exercise intensity was measured using the 10-point Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale after the first and 15th sets of exercises. Although cross-sectional areas and functional T2 mapping using ultrafast imaging (fast-acquired muscle functional magnetic resonance imaging, fast-mfMRI) have been proposed for imaging to evaluate exercise-induced muscle activity in real time, no previous studies have reported on the evaluation of trunk-muscle activity using functional T2 mapping. As a method for assessing trunk-muscle activity, we compared functional T2 mapping using ultrafast imaging (fast-mfMRI) with cross-sectional areas. Results: Although the muscle cross-sectional areas were increased by the exercise, there was no significant difference at rest. On the other hand, for all sets, the changes in T2 were significant compared with those at rest (P < 0.01). These results demonstrate that T2, calculated from fast-mfMRI images can be used to detect even a small amount of muscle activity induced by acute exercise, which was impossible to do with cross-sectional areas. Conclusion: Fast-mfMRI, which can also display functional information with detailed forms, enabled non-invasive real-time imaging for identifying and evaluating the degree of deep trunk-muscle activity induced by exercise.

• Journal of Magnetics
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.146-149
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• 2017

In this study, we compared the standardized value of each signal intensity, the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) that digitizes the diffusion of water molecules, and the signal to noise ratio (SNR) using b value 0 400, 1400 ($s/mm^2$). From March 2013 to December 2013, patients with suspicion of simple compound fracture and metastatic spine cancer were included in the MR readout. We used a 1.5 Tesla Achieva MRI system and a Syn-Spine Coil. Sequence is a DWI SE-EPI sagittal (diffusion weighted imaging spin echo-echo planar imaging sagittal) image with b-factor ($s/mm^2$) 0, 400, 1400 were used. Data analysis showed ROI (Region of Interest) in diseased area with high SI (signal intensity) in diffusion-weighted image b value 0 ($s/mm^2$) Using the MRIcro program, each SI was calculated with images of b-value 0, 400, and 1400 ($s/mm^2$), ADC map was obtained using Metlab Software with each image of b-value, The ADC is obtained by applying the ROI to the same position. The standardized values ($SI_{400}/SI_0$, $SI_{400}/SI_0$) of simple compression fractures were $0.47{\pm}0.04$ and $0.23{\pm}0.03$ and the standardized values ($SI_{400}/SI_0$, $SI_{400}/SI_0$) of the metastatic spine were $0.57{\pm}0.07$ and $0.32{\pm}0.08$ And the standardized values of the two diseases were statistically significant (p < 0.05). The ADC ($mm^2/s$) for b value 400 ($s/mm^2$) and 1400 ($s/mm^2$) of the simple compression fracture disease site were $1.70{\pm}0.16$ and $0.93{\pm}0.28$ and $1.24{\pm}0.21$ and $0.80{\pm}0.15$ for the metastatic spine. The ADC ($mm^2/s$) for b value 400($s/mm^2$) was statistically significant (p < 0.05) but the ADC ($mm^2/s$) for b value 1400 (p > 0.05). In conclusion, multi - b value recognition of signal changes in diffusion - weighted imaging is very important for the diagnosis of various spinal diseases.