Abstract
ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to develop and validate an MRI protocol based on a variable echo time (vTE) sensitive to the short T2* components of the sciatic nerve.Materials and methods15 healthy subjects (M/F: 9/6; age: 21–62) were scanned at 3T targeting the sciatic nerve at the thigh bilaterally, using a dual echo variable echo time (vTE) sequence (based on a spoiled gradient echo acquisition) with echo times of 0.98/5.37 ms. Apparent T2* (aT2*) values of the sciatic nerves were calculated with a mono-exponential fit and used for data comparison.ResultsThere were no significant differences in aT2* related to side, sex, age, and BMI, even though small differences for side were reported. Good-to-excellent repeatability and reproducibility were found for geometry of ROIs (Dice indices: intra-rater 0.68–0.7; inter-rater 0.70–0.72) and the related aT2* measures (intra-inter reader ICC 0.95–0.97; 0.66–0.85) from two different operators. Side-related signal-to-noise-ratio non-significant differences were reported, while contrast-to-noise-ratio measures were excellent both for side and echo.DiscussionOur study introduces a novel MR sequence sensitive to the short T2* components of the sciatic nerve and may be used for the study of peripheral nerve disorders.
Highlights
MR neurography has gained increasing interest for the study of nerves in different conditions and new biomarkers sensitive to pre-clinically evident nerve damage are emerging [1, 2]
Quantitative MR neurography biomarkers are being used for the study of amyloid neuropathy, diabetic neuropathy and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) [8,9,10,11,12]
We investigated differences in aT2* per thigh side and the potential influence of features such as age, sex, height, weight, and BMI, and nerve cross-sectional area (CSA)
Summary
MR neurography has gained increasing interest for the study of nerves in different conditions and new biomarkers sensitive to pre-clinically evident nerve damage are emerging [1, 2]. MR neurography protocols typically comprise conventional sequences that can detect signal from the long T2. Turbo spin echo STIR, or T2-weighted fat-saturated and T1-weighted sequences are used to detect nerve damage, demonstrated as fascicles and total nerve area enlargement, increase of the overall T2 signal and the loss of the typical fascicular pattern. Quantitative MRI techniques, such as ADC maps and tractography, apparent-T2 maps, and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) [5,6,7] have been suggested to be sensitive to tissue composition non-detectable with the resolution of conventional MRI. Quantitative MR neurography biomarkers are being used for the study of amyloid neuropathy, diabetic neuropathy and chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP) [8,9,10,11,12]
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