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Optimized depiction of thalamic substructures with a combination of T1-MPRAGE and phase: MPRAGE*

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Abstract

Objective

Deep brain stimulation has received increasing attention in recent years as a treatment option for many neurological diseases. The thalamic nuclei in particular are widely used as targets. The goal of the present work was to evaluate whether the combination of two known MRI techniques can lead to identification of thalamic substructures at 3 T.

Methods

In nine healthy subjects, an optimized 3D magnetization prepared rapid acquisition GRE (MPRAGE) protocol and phase data from a 3D GRE sequence were combined to form a new contrast (MPRAGE*). The depiction of 13 thalamic substructures was rated by two independent raters in the MPRAGE, phase and MPRAGE* image on a five-point scale. Inter-rater reliability was scored with a weighted Cohen’s kappa.

Results

Inter-rater reliability was good, with the average weighted κ = 0.68. No significant difference between the depiction of the thalamic substructures between phase and MPRAGE images could be found. MPRAGE* showed a significantly better depiction of thalamic substructures in comparison to MPRAGE and phase (p < 0.001 for both cases).

Conclusion

The combination of an optimized MPRAGE protocol with phase data to form an MPRAGE* image leads to a further improvement in the depiction of thalamic substructures, which enables the depiction of thalamic nuclei at 3 T.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, MR Research Group, University Hospital Tübingen, Hoppe-Seyler-Str. 3, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Benjamin Bender, Stefan Wagner & Uwe Klose

Authors
  1. Benjamin Bender
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  2. Stefan Wagner
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  3. Uwe Klose
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stefan Wagner.

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Conflict of interest

B. Bender, S. Wagner and U. Klose state that there are no conflicts of interest.

Ethical standards

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

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Bender, B., Wagner, S. & Klose, U. Optimized depiction of thalamic substructures with a combination of T1-MPRAGE and phase: MPRAGE*. Clin Neuroradiol 27, 511–518 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00062-016-0513-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00062-016-0513-4

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