PURPOSE: To demonstrate the feasibility of in vivo multifrequency magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) of the prostate using externally placed drivers. METHODS: Three pressurized-air drivers were used to excite shear waves within the prostate at vibration frequencies of 60, 70, and 80 Hz. Full 3D wave fields were acquired by multislice spin-echo echo-planar imaging in conjunction with tomoelastography wave speed recovery for generating full field-of-view stiffness maps. Twelve healthy volunteers were repeatedly scanned to analyze test-retest reproducibility. Five patients with suspected prostate cancer were investigated to demonstrate the clinical feasibility of the method. RESULTS: In healthy volunteers, the shear wave speed of the entire prostate was 2.24 ± 0.20 m/s with a repeatability coefficient of 0.14 m/s and 88% intraclass correlation coefficient. No significant difference between the peripheral zone (2.27 ± 0.20 m/s) and the central gland (2.22 ± 0.23 m/s) was observed. In patients, wave-speed maps displayed stiff regions consistent with the localization of suspicious masses detected by other imaging markers. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed method provides reproducible quantitative maps of tissue stiffness throughout the pelvic region and can easily be integrated into clinical imaging protocols. Clinical stiffness maps display many details of potential interest for cancer diagnosis. Magn Reson Med 79:1325-1333, 2018.
PURPOSE: To demonstrate the feasibility of in vivo multifrequency magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) of the prostate using externally placed drivers. METHODS: Three pressurized-air drivers were used to excite shear waves within the prostate at vibration frequencies of 60, 70, and 80 Hz. Full 3D wave fields were acquired by multislice spin-echo echo-planar imaging in conjunction with tomoelastography wave speed recovery for generating full field-of-view stiffness maps. Twelve healthy volunteers were repeatedly scanned to analyze test-retest reproducibility. Five patients with suspected prostate cancer were investigated to demonstrate the clinical feasibility of the method. RESULTS: In healthy volunteers, the shear wave speed of the entire prostate was 2.24 ± 0.20 m/s with a repeatability coefficient of 0.14 m/s and 88% intraclass correlation coefficient. No significant difference between the peripheral zone (2.27 ± 0.20 m/s) and the central gland (2.22 ± 0.23 m/s) was observed. In patients, wave-speed maps displayed stiff regions consistent with the localization of suspicious masses detected by other imaging markers. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed method provides reproducible quantitative maps of tissue stiffness throughout the pelvic region and can easily be integrated into clinical imaging protocols. Clinical stiffness maps display many details of potential interest for cancer diagnosis. Magn Reson Med 79:1325-1333, 2018.
Authors: Stefan Hetzer; Florian Dittmann; Karl Bormann; Sebastian Hirsch; Axel Lipp; Danny Jj Wang; Jürgen Braun; Ingolf Sack Journal: J Cereb Blood Flow Metab Date: 2018-09-05 Impact factor: 6.200
Authors: Christian Guenthner; Sweta Sethi; Marian Troelstra; Ayse Sila Dokumaci; Ralph Sinkus; Sebastian Kozerke Journal: NMR Biomed Date: 2019-01-29 Impact factor: 4.044