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Detecting small pulmonary nodules with spiral ultrashort echo time sequences in 1.5 T MRI

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Abstract

Objective

This study investigated ultrashort echo time (UTE) sequences in 1.5 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for small lung nodule detection.

Materials and methods

A total of 120 patients with 165 small lung nodules before video-associated thoracoscopic resection were enrolled. MRI sequences included conventional volumetric interpolated breath-hold examination (VIBE, scan time 16 s), spiral UTE (TE 0.05 ms) with free-breathing (scan time 3.5–5 min), and breath-hold sequences (scan time 20 s). Chest CT provided a standard reference for nodule size and morphology. Nodule detection sensitivity was evaluated on a lobe-by-lobe basis.

Results

The nodule detection rate was significantly higher in spiral UTE free-breathing (> 78%, p < 0.05) and breath-hold sequences (> 75%, p < 0.05) compared with conventional VIBE (> 55%), reaching 100% when nodule size was > 16 mm, and reaching 95% when nodules were in solid morphology, regardless of size. The inter-sequence reliability between free-breathing and breath-hold spiral UTE was good (κ > 0.80). Inter-reader agreement was also high (κ > 0.77) for spiral UTE sequences. Nodule size measurements were consistent between CT and spiral UTE MRI, with a minimal bias up to 0.2 mm.

Discussion

Spiral UTE sequences detect small lung nodules that warrant surgery, offers realistic scan times for clinical work, and could be implemented as part of routine lung MRI.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Joseph Pfeuffer (Siemens Healthcare) for his contributions to the development of the Spiral UTE VIBE sequence. We are thankful to the doctors, nurses, healthcare providers, and other sources of health information who contributed to this study.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology Taiwan (Grant Number: Contract No. MST 107-2314-B-002-225-MY2) and the National Taiwan University Hospital (grant number: NTUH107-M4007, NTUH 108-N4353, NTUH 109-N4547).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital, No.7, Chung-Shan South Road, Taipei, 100, Taiwan

    Yu-Sen Huang, Mao-Yuan Marine Su & Yeun-Chung Chang

  2. Department of Radiology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan

    Yu-Sen Huang, Mao-Yuan Marine Su & Yeun-Chung Chang

  3. Siemens Healthcare Limited, Taipei, Taiwan

    Emi Niisato

  4. Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Erlangen, Germany

    Thomas Benkert

  5. Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan

    Hsao-Hsun Hsu & Jin-Shing Chen

  6. Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan

    Jin-Yuan Shih

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  1. Yu-Sen Huang
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  8. Yeun-Chung Chang
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Contributions

Y-SH: study conception and design, acquisition of data, formal analysis, funding acquisition, methodology, drafting of manuscript. EN: acquisition of data, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, drafting of manuscript. M-YMS: interpretation of data, investigation, software. TB: formal analysis, software. H-HH: investigation, methodology. J-YS: methodology, project administration. J-SC: conceptualization, critical revision, resources, supervision, validation. Y-CC: conceptualization, funding acquisition, investigation, methodology, resources, writing—review and editing, critical revision.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yeun-Chung Chang.

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Conflict of interest

Emi Niisato and Thomas Benkert are employees of Siemens. There was no direct or indirect funding support from Siemens during the study for the prototype ultrashort echo time sequences. The other authors indicate no potential conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The study was approved by National Taiwan University Hospital Research Ethics Committee (approval number: 201707032RINB).

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Huang, YS., Niisato, E., Su, MY.M. et al. Detecting small pulmonary nodules with spiral ultrashort echo time sequences in 1.5 T MRI. Magn Reson Mater Phy 34, 399–409 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-020-00885-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-020-00885-x

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