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Automatic T2* determination for quantification of iron load in heart and liver: a comparison between automatic inline Maximum Likelihood Estimate and the truncation and offset methods
Author(s) -
Hedström Erik,
Voigt Tobias,
Greil Gerald,
Schaeffter Tobias,
Nagel Eike
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
clinical physiology and functional imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.608
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1475-097X
pISSN - 1475-0961
DOI - 10.1111/cpf.12303
Subject(s) - medicine , imaging phantom , nuclear medicine , offset (computer science) , computer science , programming language
Summary Purpose To validate ironload T2* by automatic inline Maximum Likelihood Estimate ( MLE ) with k‐space Rician noise correction, against the manual and automated truncation, as well as offset methods, in phantoms and in heart and liver in patients. Methods Twenty‐five patients and an iron‐oxide phantom were scanned at 1.5T using 2 multi‐echo gradient‐echo sequences. All parameters were identical (voxel 2–3 × 2–3 × 10 mm 3 , 10 echoes, TR = 26 ms, FA = 20°, BW = 833 Hz, SENSE = 2) except for TE (cardiac: TE 1 = 2·5 ms, Δ TE = 2·5 ms; liver: TE 1 = 1·2 ms, Δ TE = 1·5 ms). Phantoms were scanned at 1 and 32 signal averages ( NSA ), with NSA 32 representing low‐noise reference. Results Phantoms: MLE showed low variability between NSA 1 and NSA 32 (0·02 ± 0·29 ms, CI ±0·21 ms). Between methods, no difference was shown ( MLE versus all: <0·31 ms, CI < ±0·35 ms). Patients: No differences were found between methods in heart ( MLE versus all: <−0·22 ms, CI < ±0·75 ms) or liver ( MLE versus all: <0·12 ms, CI < ±0·26 ms). Conclusions The automatic inline MLE method is comparable to the general reference standards for determining cardiac and liver T2* for ironload in man. An automatic inline method may simplify ironload assessment, particularly in centres seeing fewer cases.