Quantitative Assessments For Phase-Sensitive Inversion Recovery Post Gadolinium Based Contrast Enhancement

Abstract

Purpose: Phase Sensitive Inversion Recovery (PSIR) is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequence with inversion recovery used to enhance T1-weighted contrast, providing improved visualisation of brain tissue and pathology.

Methods: This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of PSIR post gadolinium based contrast enhancement (GBCE) imaging in evaluating brain lesions post-GBCE, comparing it with the T1-weighted Magnetization Prepared Rapid Acquisition Gradient Echo (T1 MPRAGE) sequence on a 1.5 Tesla MRI system. The analysis involved quantitative assessments based on the contrast ratio (CR), contrast enhancement (CE), and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) of both sequences. The Radiant DICOM viewer is employed for measurement of signal intensity (SI) and signal standard deviation (SD) as noise index, while Microsoft Excel is used for data analysis and statistics.

Results: Overall, PSIR was found to be more effective than T1 MPRAGE in CNR, while T1-MPRAGE was more effective in CE and CR. The average lesion CNR was 38.4 for T1-MPRAGE, while the average lesion CNR in PSIR was 41.3. For CE, the average lesion CE in T1-MPRAGE was 0.75, while the average CE in PSIR was 0.36. For CR, T1-MPRAGE exhibited an average value of 1.2, while PSIR's average value was 0.67. However, the CR and CE were higher in PSIR for some lesions, such as multiple sclerosis (MS).

Conclusion: Although PSIR post-GBCE imaging can enhance the visualisation of certain brain lesions, in some cases, it cannot replace T1 MPRAGE for routine clinical use. However, PSIR post-GBCE can be combined with T1-MPRAGE to improve lesion evaluation.