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Free-breathing 3D diffusion MRI for high-resolution hepatic metastasis characterization in small animals

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Abstract

The goal of this study was to develop a 3D diffusion weighted sequence for free breathing liver imaging in small animals at high magnetic field. Hepatic metastases were detected and the apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) were measured. A 3D SE-EPI sequence was developed by (i) inserting a water-selective excitation radiofrequency pulse to suppress adipose tissue signal and (ii) bipolar diffusion gradients to decrease the sensitivity to respiration motion. Mice with hepatic metastases were imaged at 7T by applying b values from 200 to 1100 s/mm2. 3D images with high spatial resolution (182 × 156 × 125 µm) were obtained in only 8 min 32 s. The modified DW-SE-EPI sequence allowed to obtain 3D abdominal images of healthy mice with fat SNR 2.5 times lower than without any fat suppression method and sharpness 2.8 times higher than on respiration-triggered images. Due to the high spatial resolution, the core and the periphery of disseminated hepatic metastases were differentiated at high b-values only, demonstrating the presence of edema and proliferating cells (with ADC of 2.65 × 10−3 and 1.55 × 10−3 mm2/s, respectively). Furthermore, these metastases were accurately distinguished from proliferating ones within the same animal at high b-values (mean ADC of 0.38 × 10−3 mm2/s). Metastases of less than 1.7 mm3 diameter were detected. The new 3D SE-EPI sequence enabled to obtain diffusion information within liver metastases. In addition of intra-metastasis heterogeneity, differences in diffusion were measured between metastases within an animal. This sequence could be used to obtain diffusion information at high magnetic field.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a public grant, Translational Research and Advanced Imaging Laboratory, which is part of the French National Research Agency’s Investments for the Future Program (“NewFISP”; ANR- 10-LABX-57) and by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Résonance Magnétique des Systèmes Biologiques, UMR 5536, CNRS/University Bordeaux, 146 rue Léo Saignat, 33076, Bordeaux, France

    Emeline J. Ribot, Aurélien J. Trotier, Charles R. Castets, Benjamin Dallaudière, Eric Thiaudière, Jean-Michel Franconi & Sylvain Miraux

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  1. Emeline J. Ribot
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  2. Aurélien J. Trotier
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Correspondence to Emeline J. Ribot.

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Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 12 kb)

10585_2015_9766_MOESM2_ESM.pdf

Supplementary Figure 1: Excitation profile of 1 2 3 2 1 pulse at 7T. The blue and the green line represent the water and the fat resonance frequencies, respectively. Supplementary material 2 (PDF 29 kb)

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Ribot, E.J., Trotier, A.J., Castets, C.R. et al. Free-breathing 3D diffusion MRI for high-resolution hepatic metastasis characterization in small animals. Clin Exp Metastasis 33, 167–178 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10585-015-9766-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10585-015-9766-6

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