Program Information

Use of Blade Sequences in Lumbar Spine MR Imaging for Eliminating Motion, Pulsatile Flow and Cross-Talk Artifacts

Nikos Papanikolaou

P Mavroidis¹, E Lavdas², S Kostopoulos³, D Glotsos⁴, V Roka⁵, A Koutsiaris⁶, G Batsikas⁷, G Sakkas⁸, A Tsagkalis⁹, I Notaras¹⁰, S Stathakis¹¹, N Papanikolaou¹²*, K Vassiou¹³, (1) University of Texas Health Science Center, UTHSCSA, San Antonio, TX, USA and Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University, Sweden (2) Techological Education Institute of Athens, Athens, Greece, (3) Techological Education Institute of Athens, Athens, Greece,(4) Techological Education Institute of Athens, Athens, Greece,(5) Health Center of Farkadona, Trikala, Greece,(6) Technological Educational Institute of Larissa, Larissa, Greece,(7) IASO Thessalias Hospital, Larissa, Greece,(8) Center for Research and Technology, Thessaly, Trikala, Greece,(9) IASO Thessalias Hospital, Larissa, Larissa, Greece,(10) University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece,(11) Cancer Therapy and Research Center, San Antonio, TX, (12) University of Texas HSC SA, San Antonio, TX, (13) University of Thessaly, Larissa, Greece

PO-BPC-Exhibit Hall-5 Saturday  Room: Exhibit Hall

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the ability of T2 Turbo Spin Echo (TSE) AXIAL and SAGITAL BLADE sequences in reducing or even eliminating motion, pulsatile flow and cross-talk artifacts in lumbar spine MRI examinations.

Methods: Forty four patients, who had routinely undergone a lumbar spine examination, participated in the study. The following pairs of sequences with and without BLADE were compared: a) T2 TSE Sagittal (SAG) in thirty two cases, and b) T2 TSE Axial (AX) also in thirty two cases. Both qualitative and quantitative analyses were performed based on the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR), measures of different normal anatomical structures. The qualitative analysis was performed by experienced radiologists. Also, the presence of image motion, pulsatile flow and cross-talk artifacts was evaluated.

Results: Based on the results of the SNR and CRN for the different sequences and anatomical structures, the BLADE sequences were found to be remarkably superior to the conventional ones in all the cases. The same findings were also observed in the qualitative analysis. The BLADE sequences eliminated the motion artifacts in all the cases. In our results, it was found that in the examined sequences (Sagittal and Axial) the differences between the BLADE and conventional sequences regarding the elimination of motion, pulsatile flow and cross-talk artifacts were statistically significant. In all the comparisons, the T2 TSE BLADE sequences were significantly superior to the corresponding conventional sequences regarding the classification of their image quality.

Conclusions: In conclusion, this technique appears to be capable of potentially eliminating motion, pulsatile flow and cross-talk artifacts in lumbar spine MR images and producing high quality images in collaborative and non-collaborative patients.

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