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On the use of a spin‐echo based double inversion recovery acquisition for the measurement of cortical brain thickness
Author(s) -
Nam Yoonho,
Kim Eung Yeop,
Kim DongHyun
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.22536
Subject(s) - nuclear medicine , nuclear magnetic resonance , spin echo , echo time , magnetic resonance imaging , materials science , physics , medicine , radiology
Purpose: To determine whether a spin‐echo‐based sequence, which are inherently insensitive to magnetic field inhomogeneity, can be used for brain cortical thickness measurement studies. Materials and Methods: By using a double inversion recovery (DIR) spin‐echo‐based sequence, cortical thickness estimates were performed from data acquired from seven healthy volunteers. The cortical thickness was also calculated from data acquired using an MPRAGE sequence and the Bland‐Altman analysis was performed for comparison of the two methods. The average signal and contrast to noise ratios (SNR, CNR) of the two methods were also calculated. Results: The bias over the entire brain between DIR and MPRAGE was 0.87 ± 0.08 mm. The bias calculated in the major regional lobes were temporal: 0.76 ± 0.09 mm, frontal: 0.89 ± 0.07 mm, parietal: 0.92 ± 0.10 mm, occipital: 0.75 ± 0.12 mm, and cingulate: 0.79 ± 0.10 mm. This thickness difference was due mainly to the boundary difference in the MPRAGE and DIR at the grey matter/cerebral spinal fluid (GM/CSF) regions. The mean SNR and CNR was CNR MPRAGE = 47.8 ± 8.4 and CNR DIR = 19.2 ± 2.9, SNR MPRAGE = 76.8 ± 10.5 and SNR DIR = 21.1 ± 2.8. Conclusion: The study suggests that cortical thickness measurements can be performed using a DIR spin‐echo sequence, which is inherently immune to main field inhomogeneity. Larger thickness measurements were consistently observed in DIR compared with MPRAGE. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2011;33:1218–1223. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.