Adam Johansson

CT substitute derived from MRI sequences with ultrashort echo time

PURPOSE Methods for deriving computed tomography (CT) equivalent information from MRI are needed for attenuation correction in PET/MRI applications, as well as for patient positioning and dose planning in MRI based radiation therapy workflows. This study presents a method for generating a drop in substitute for a CT image from a set of magnetic resonance (MR)images. METHODS A Gaussian mixture regression model was used to link the voxel values in CT images to the voxel values in images from three MRI sequences: one T2 weighted 3D spin echo based sequence and two dual echo ultrashort echo time MRI sequences with different echo times and flip angles. The method used a training set of matched MR and CT data that after training was able to predict a substitute CT (s-CT) based entirely on the MR information for a new patient. Method validation was achieved using datasets covering the heads of five patients and applying leave-one-out cross-validation (LOOCV). During LOOCV, the model was estimated from the MR and CT data of four patients (training set) and applied to the MR data of the remaining patient (validation set) to generate an s-CT image. This procedure was repeated for all five training and validation data combinations. RESULTS The mean absolute error for the CT number in the s-CT images was 137 HU. No large differences in method accuracy were noted for the different patients, indicating a robust method. The largest errors in the s-CT images were found at air-tissue and bone-tissue interfaces. The model accurately discriminated between air and bone, as well as between soft tissues and nonsoft tissues. CONCLUSIONS The s-CT method has the potential to provide an accurate estimation of CT information without risk of geometrical inaccuracies as the model is voxel based. Therefore, s-CT images could be well suited as alternatives to CT images for dose planning in radiotherapy and attenuation correction in PET/MRI.

Voxel-wise uncertainty in CT substitute derived from MRI.

PURPOSE In an earlier work, we demonstrated that substitutes for CT images can be derived from MR images using ultrashort echo time (UTE) sequences, conventional T2 weighted sequences, and Gaussian mixture regression (GMR). In this study, we extend this work by analyzing the uncertainties associated with the GMR model and the information contributions from the individual imaging sequences. METHODS An analytical expression for the voxel-wise conditional expected absolute deviation (EAD) in substitute CT (s-CT) images was derived. The expression depends only on MR images and can thus be calculated along with each s-CT image. The uncertainty measure was evaluated by comparing the EAD to the true mean absolute prediction deviation (MAPD) between the s-CT and CT images for 14 patients. Further, the influence of the different MR images included in the GMR model on the generated s-CTs was investigated by removing one or more images and evaluating the MAPD for a spectrum of predicted radiological densities. RESULTS The largest EAD was predicted at air-soft tissue and bone-soft tissue interfaces. The EAD agreed with the MAPD in both these regions and in regions with lower EADs, such as the brain. Two of the MR images included in the GMR model were found to be mutually redundant for the purpose of s-CT generation. CONCLUSIONS The presented uncertainty estimation method accurately predicts the voxel-wise MAPD in s-CT images. Also, the non-UTE sequence previously used in the model was found to be redundant.

Improved quality of computed tomography substitute derived from magnetic resonance (MR) data by incorporation of spatial information – potential application for MR-only radiotherapy and attenuation correction in positron emission tomography

Abstract Background. Estimation of computed tomography (CT) equivalent data, i.e. a substitute CT (s-CT), from magnetic resonance (MR) images is a prerequisite both for attenuation correction of positron emission tomography (PET) data acquired with a PET/MR scanner and for dose calculations in an MR-only radiotherapy workflow. It has previously been shown that it is possible to estimate Hounsfield numbers based on MR image intensities, using ultra short echo-time imaging and Gaussian mixture regression (GMR). In the present pilot study we investigate the possibility to also include spatial information in the GMR, with the aim to improve the quality of the s-CT. Material and methods. MR and CT data for nine patients were used in the present study. For each patient, GMR models were created from the other eight patients, including either both UTE image intensities and spatial information on a voxel by voxel level, or only UTE image intensities. The models were used to create s-CT images for each respective patient. Results. The inclusion of spatial information in the GMR model improved the accuracy of the estimated s-CT. The improvement was most pronounced in smaller, complicated anatomical regions as the inner ear and post-nasal cavities. Conclusions. This pilot study shows that inclusion of spatial information in GMR models to convert MR data to CT equivalent images is feasible. The accuracy of the s-CT is improved and the spatial information could make it possible to create a general model for the conversion applicable to the whole body.

Treatment planning of intracranial targets on MRI derived substitute CT data

BACKGROUND The use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) as a complement to computed tomography (CT) in the target definition procedure for radiotherapy is increasing. To eliminate systematic uncertainties due to image registration, a workflow based entirely on MRI may be preferable. In the present pilot study, we investigate dose calculation accuracy for automatically generated substitute CT (s-CT) images of the head based on MRI. We also produce digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) from s-CT data to evaluate the feasibility of patient positioning based on MR images. METHODS AND MATERIALS Five patients were included in the study. The dose calculation was performed on CT, s-CT, s-CT data without inhomogeneity correction and bulk density assigned MRI images. Evaluation of the results was performed using point dose and dose volume histogram (DVH) comparisons, and gamma index evaluation. RESULTS The results demonstrate that the s-CT images improve the dose calculation accuracy compared to the method of non-inhomogeneity corrected dose calculations (mean improvement 2.0% points) and that it performs almost identically to the method of bulk density assignment. The s-CT based DRRs appear to be adequate for patient positioning of intra-cranial targets, although further investigation is needed on this subject. CONCLUSION The s-CT method is very fast and yields data that can be used for treatment planning without sacrificing accuracy.

CT substitutes derived from MR images reconstructed with parallel imaging.

PURPOSE Computed tomography (CT) substitute images can be generated from ultrashort echo time (UTE) MRI sequences with radial k-space sampling. These CT substitutes can be used as ordinary CT images for PET attenuation correction and radiotherapy dose calculations. Parallel imaging allows faster acquisition of magnetic resonance (MR) images by exploiting differences in receiver coil element sensitivities. This study investigates whether non-Cartesian parallel imaging reconstruction can be used to improve CT substitutes generated from shorter examination times. METHODS The authors used gridding as well as two non-Cartesian parallel imaging reconstruction methods, SPIRiT and CG-SENSE, to reconstruct radial UTE and gradient echo (GE) data into images of the head for 23 patients. For each patient, images were reconstructed from the full dataset and from a number of subsampled datasets. The subsampled datasets simulated shorter acquisition times by containing fewer radial k-space spokes (1000, 2000, 3000, 5000, and 10,000 spokes) than the full dataset (30,000 spokes). For each combination of patient, reconstruction method, and number of spokes, the reconstructed UTE and GE images were used to generate a CT substitute. Each CT substitute image was compared to a real CT image of the same patient. RESULTS The mean absolute deviation between the CT number in CT substitute and CT decreased when using SPIRiT as compared to gridding reconstruction. However, the reduction was small and the CT substitute algorithm was insensitive to moderate subsampling (≥ 5000 spokes) regardless of reconstruction method. For more severe subsampling (≤ 3000 spokes), corresponding to acquisition times less than a minute long, the CT substitute quality was deteriorated for all reconstruction methods but SPIRiT gave a reduction in the mean absolute deviation of down to 25 Hounsfield units compared to gridding. CONCLUSIONS SPIRiT marginally improved the CT substitute quality for a given number of radial spokes as compared to gridding. However, the increased reconstruction time of non-Cartesian parallel imaging reconstruction is difficult to motivate from this improvement. Because the CT substitute algorithm was insensitive to moderate subsampling, data for a CT substitute could be collected in as little as minute and reconstructed with gridding without deteriorating the CT substitute quality.

Uncertainty estimation in dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI

Using dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI (DCE‐MRI), it is possible to estimate pharmacokinetic (PK) parameters that convey information about physiological properties, e.g., in tumors. In DCE‐MRI, errors propagate in a nontrivial way to the PK parameters. We propose a method based on multivariate linear error propagation to calculate uncertainty maps for the PK parameters. Uncertainties in the PK parameters were investigated for the modified Kety model. The method was evaluated with Monte Carlo simulations and exemplified with in vivo brain tumor data. PK parameter uncertainties due to noise in dynamic data were accurately estimated. Noise with standard deviation up to 15% in the baseline signal and the baseline T1 map gave estimated uncertainties in good agreement with the Monte Carlo simulations. Good agreement was also found for up to 15% errors in the arterial input function amplitude. The method was less accurate for errors in the bolus arrival time with disagreements of 23%, 32%, and 29% for Ktrans, ve, and vp, respectively, when the standard deviation of the bolus arrival time error was 5.3 s. In conclusion, the proposed method provides efficient means for calculation of uncertainty maps, and it was applicable to a wide range of sources of uncertainty. Magn Reson Med 69:992–1002, 2013.

Quantification of liver function by linearization of a two-compartment model of gadoxetic acid uptake using dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging

Dynamic gadoxetic acid‐enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows the investigation of liver function through the observation of the perfusion and uptake of contrast agent in the parenchyma. Voxel‐by‐voxel quantification of the contrast uptake rate (k1) from dynamic gadoxetic acid‐enhanced MRI through the standard dual‐input, two‐compartment model could be susceptible to overfitting of variance in the data. The aim of this study was to develop a linearized, but more robust, model. To evaluate the estimated k1 values using this linearized analysis, high‐temporal‐resolution gadoxetic acid‐enhanced MRI scans were obtained in 13 examinations, and k1 maps were created using both models. Comparison of liver k1 values estimated from the two methods produced a median correlation coefficient of 0.91 across the 12 scans that could be used. Temporally sparse clinical MRI data with gadoxetic acid uptake were also employed to create k1 maps of 27 examinations using the linearized model. Of 20 scans, the created k1 maps were compared with overall liver function as measured by indocyanine green (ICG) retention, and yielded a correlation coefficient of 0.72. In the 27 k1 maps created via the linearized model, the mean liver k1 value was 3.93 ± 1.79 mL/100 mL/min, consistent with previous studies. The results indicate that the linearized model provides a simple and robust method for the assessment of the rate of contrast uptake that can be applied to both high‐temporal‐resolution dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI and typical clinical multiphase MRI data, and that correlates well with the results of both two‐compartment analysis and independent whole liver function measurements.

Rigid‐body motion correction of the liver in image reconstruction for golden‐angle stack‐of‐stars DCE MRI

Respiratory motion can affect pharmacokinetic perfusion parameters quantified from liver dynamic contrast‐enhanced MRI. Image registration can be used to align dynamic images after reconstruction. However, intra‐image motion blur remains after alignment and can alter the shape of contrast‐agent uptake curves. We introduce a method to correct for inter‐ and intra‐image motion during image reconstruction.

Abdominal DCE-MRI reconstruction with deformable motion correction for liver perfusion quantification

PURPOSE Abdominal dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI suffers from motion-induced artifacts that can blur images and distort contrast-agent uptake curves. For liver perfusion analysis, image reconstruction with rigid-body motion correction (RMC) can restore distorted portal-venous input functions (PVIF) to higher peak amplitudes. However, RMC cannot correct for liver deformation during breathing. We present a reconstruction algorithm with deformable motion correction (DMC) that enables correction of breathing-induced deformation in the whole abdomen. METHODS Raw data from a golden-angle stack-of-stars gradient-echo sequence were collected for 54 DCE-MRI examinations of 31 patients. For each examination, a respiratory motion signal was extracted from the data and used to reconstruct 21 breathing states from inhale to exhale. The states were aligned with deformable image registration to the end-exhale state. Resulting deformation fields were used to correct back-projection images before reconstruction with view sharing. Images with DMC were compared to uncorrected images and images with RMC. RESULTS DMC significantly increased the PVIF peak amplitude compared to uncorrected images (P << 0.01, mean increase: 8%) but not compared to RMC. The increased PVIF peak amplitude significantly decreased estimated portal-venous perfusion in the liver (P << 0.01, mean decrease: 8 ml/(100 ml·min)). DMC also removed artifacts in perfusion maps at the liver edge and reduced blurring of liver tumors for some patients. CONCLUSIONS DCE-MRI reconstruction with DMC can restore motion-distorted uptake curves in the abdomen and remove motion artifacts from reconstructed images and parameter maps but does not significantly improve perfusion quantification in the liver compared to RMC.

Effect of gradient field nonlinearity distortions in MRI-based attenuation maps for PET reconstruction

PURPOSE Attenuation correction is a requirement for quantification of the activity distribution in PET. The need to base attenuation correction on MRI instead of CT has arisen with the introduction of integrated PET/MRI systems. The aim was to describe the effect of residual gradient field nonlinearity distortions on PET attenuation correction. METHODS MRI distortions caused by gradient field nonlinearity were simulated in CT images used for attenuation correction in PET reconstructions. The simulations yielded radial distortion of up to ±2.3mm at 15cm from the scanner isocentre for distortion corrected images. The mean radial distortion of uncorrected images were 6.3mm at the same distance. Reconstructions of PET data were performed using the distortion corrected images as well as the images where no correction had been applied. RESULTS The mean relative difference in reconstructed PET uptake intensity due to incomplete distortion correction was less than ±5%. The magnitude of this difference varied between patients and the size of the distortions remaining after distortion correction. CONCLUSIONS Radial distortions of 2mm at 15cm radius from the scanner isocentre lead to PET attenuation correction errors smaller than 5%. Keeping the gradient field nonlinearity distortions below this limit can be a reasonable goal for MRI systems used for attenuation correction in PET for quantification purposes. A higher geometrical accuracy may, however, be warranted for quantification of peripheral lesions. These distortions can, e.g., be controlled at acceptance testing and subsequent quality assurance intervals.