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Assessment of pituitary micro-lesions using 3D sampling perfection with application-optimized contrasts using different flip-angle evolutions

  • Diagnostic Neuroradiology
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Abstract

Introduction

The aim of this study was to explore the value of three-dimensional sampling perfection with application-optimized contrasts using different flip-angle evolutions (3D-SPACE) sequence in assessment of pituitary micro-lesions.

Methods

Coronal 3D-SPACE as well as routine T1- and dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) T1-weighted images of the pituitary gland were acquired in 52 patients (48 women and four men; mean age, 32 years; age range, 17–50 years) with clinically suspected pituitary abnormality at 3.0 T, retrospectively. The interobserver agreement of assessment results was analyzed with K-statistics. Qualitative analyses were compared using Wilcoxon signed-rank test.

Results

There was good interobserver agreement of the independent evaluations for 3D-SPACE images (k = 0.892), fair for routine MR images (k = 0.649). At 3.0 T, 3D-SPACE provided significantly better images than routine MR images in terms of the boundary of pituitary gland, definition of pituitary lesions, and overall image quality. The evaluation of pituitary micro-lesions using combined routine and 3D-SPACE MR imaging was superior to that using only routine or 3D-SPACE imaging.

Conclusion

The 3D-SPACE sequence can be used for appropriate and successful evaluation of the pituitary gland. We suggest 3D-SPACE sequence to be a powerful supplemental sequence in MR examinations with suspected pituitary micro-lesions.

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Abbreviations

3D:

Three-dimensional

SPACE:

Sampling perfection with application-optimized contrasts using different flip-angle evolutions

DCE:

Dynamic contrast-enhanced

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Professor Chi-Shing Zee, USC Keck School of Medicine, for the help in proofreading the manuscript. We also thank Professor Hanqiu Liu and Professor Junhai Zhang for making assessments.

Conflict of interest

We declare that we have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

We declare that all human studies have been approved by the Ethics Committee of our hospital and have therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. We declare that all patients gave informed consent prior to inclusion in this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, 12 Wulumuqi Road, Shanghai, 200040, People’s Republic of China

    Jing Wang, Yue Wu, Zhenwei Yao & Zhong Yang

Authors
  1. Jing Wang
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  2. Yue Wu
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  3. Zhenwei Yao
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  4. Zhong Yang
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Correspondence to Zhenwei Yao.

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Wang, J., Wu, Y., Yao, Z. et al. Assessment of pituitary micro-lesions using 3D sampling perfection with application-optimized contrasts using different flip-angle evolutions. Neuroradiology 56, 1047–1053 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-014-1432-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00234-014-1432-1

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