Morphological study of the human hyoid bone with three-dimensional CT images -Gender difference and age-related changes.

The human hyoid bone supports the base of the tongue and is involved in breathing, chewing, and swallowing as well as in the muscle movements associated with articulation. Accordingly it plays an important bone for a human to live. It is a very interesting organ also in multiple special area, including anatomy, mastication, swallowing, articulation, and also forensic medicine. In the morphological study of the human hyoid bone, there is a comparative anthropological research early in 1900, whereas the metrological research has been little reported later. We first used MDCT, and recorded each organic hyoid locus with a three-dimensional image for three-dimensional morphometry of gender differences, age-related changes, and the morphologic characters of the hyoid bone, and compared them with the results of our predecessors. By measuring the volume of the human hyoid bone, we identified gender difference at high rates, and estimated a certain level of ages based on the ossification at the junction area of the hyoid body and greater horns observed. Our results can be applied in the forensic medicine. By examining 600 cases, atypical horseshoes-shapes were found and the existence of the hyoid bone protrusion was demonstrated at high rates.

The middle meningial artery during a migraine attack: 3T magnetic resonance angiography study.

We performed 3T magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) during a spontaneous migraine attack. The patient was a 42-year-old woman migraineur diagnosed by the IHS criteria. The change of the middle meningial artery (MMA) was measured on the axial brain images using MATLAB for three phases (attack-free period, during an attack, a period after medication). There were no dramatic changes of vasodilation in the MMA during the attack (2.0 mm), attack-free period (diameter 1.9 mm), or period after medication (1.7 mm), resembling extrapolations of observations in experimental animal models. This finding suggests that the dramatic vasomotion might not be associated with migraine pathophysiology.

Using the GRAPPA operator and the generalized sampling theorem to reconstruct undersampled non-Cartesian data.

As expected from the generalized sampling theorem of Papoulis, the use of a bunched sampling acquisition scheme in conjunction with a conjugate gradient (CG) reconstruction algorithm can decrease scan time by reducing the number of phase-encoding lines needed to generate an unaliased image at a given resolution. However, the acquisition of such bunched data requires both modified pulse sequences and high gradient performance. A novel method of generating the "bunched" data using self-calibrating GRAPPA operator gridding (GROG), a parallel imaging method that shifts data points by small distances in k-space (with Deltak usually less than 1.0, depending on the receiver coil) using the GRAPPA operator, is presented here. With the CG reconstruction method, these additional "bunched" points can then be used to reconstruct an image with reduced artifacts from undersampled data. This method is referred to as GROG-facilitated bunched phase encoding (BPE), or GROG-BPE. To better understand how the patterns of bunched points, maximal blip size, and number of bunched points affect the reconstruction quality, a number of simulations were performed using the GROG-BPE approach. Finally, to demonstrate that this method can be combined with a variety of trajectories, examples of images with reduced artifacts reconstructed from undersampled in vivo radial, spiral, and rosette data are shown.

Re-evaluation of body weight as an indicator for contrast material dosage for indirect CT venography.

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated body weight as an accurate indicator for determining contrast load using nonionic monomeric contrast material in indirect CT venography. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred and thirty-two patients (mean age 51 years) underwent indirect CT venography to exclude the possibility of DVT. We used 150 ml of isohexol (iodine, 300 mgI/ml) administered at a rate of 3.0 ml/s. Scanning delay was 180 s from the time of initiation of contrast injection. Scans were obtained in a caudal-to-cranial direction starting from the ankle. Hounsfield unit (HU) measurements were recorded at the common femoral and popliteal veins. Using linear regression analysis, we calculated the correlation the coefficient between the CT attenuation and the iodine dose per body weight of each patient. We also recorded the presence of DVT and measured the CT attenuation of the clots. RESULTS: Average contrast dosage per weight was 765.3 mgI (from 420.5 -1184.2 mgI). Average measurements of HU at the common femoral and popliteal veins were 114.4 ± 17.8 HU and 109.9 ± 21.4 HU, respectively. The regression coefficients were 0.62 and 0.41 for the common femoral and popliteal veins, respectively. DVT was detected in 33 of 132 patients. The average HU of the thrombus was 47.7 ± 13.3 HU. CONCLUSION: Indirect CT venography for detecting DVT initiated 180 s after the start of infusion of contrast material (150 ml) and a contrast injection at a rate of 3 ml/s produced high mean levels of venous enhancement. However, correlation between dose of contrast material per patient weight and CT attenuation of veins was fairly low.

Zigzag sampling for improved parallel imaging.

Conventional Cartesian parallel MRI methods are limited to the sensitivity variations provided by the underlying receiver coil array in the dimension in which the data reduction is carried out, namely, the phase-encoding directions. However, in this work an acquisition strategy is presented that takes advantage of sensitivity variations in the readout direction, thus improving the parallel imaging reconstruction process. This is achieved by employing rapidly oscillating phase-encoding gradients during the actual readout. The benefit of this approach is demonstrated in vivo using various zigzag-shaped gradient trajectory designs. It is shown that zigzag type sampling, in analogy to CAIPIRINHA, modifies the appearance of aliasing in 2D and 3D imaging, thereby utilizing additional sensitivity variations in the readout direction directly resulting in improved parallel imaging reconstruction performance.

Bunched phase encoding (BPE): a new fast data acquisition method in MRI.

A new fast data acquisition method, "Bunched Phase Encoding" (BPE), is presented. In conventional rectilinear data acquisition, only a readout gradient (and no phase encoding gradient) is applied when k-space data are acquired. Reduction of the number of phase encoding lines by increasing the phase encoding step size often leads to aliasing artifacts. Papoulis's generalized sampling theory asserts that in some cases aliasing artifact-free signals can be reconstructed even if the Nyquist criterion is violated in some regions of the Fourier domain. In this study, Papoulis's theoretical construct is exploited to reduce the number of acquired phase encoding lines. To achieve this, k-space data are sampled along a "zigzag" trajectory during each readout; samples are acquired at a sampling frequency higher than that of the normal rectilinear acquisition. The total number of TR cycles and, hence, the total scan time can be reduced. The resultant signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) often varies across the reconstructed image when using the BPE technique, and the image SNR depends on the reconstruction method. This work is comparable to a gradient based version of parallel imaging. Evidence suggests it may serve as the basis for new opportunities for fast data acquisition in MRI.

Fast Spiral two-point Dixon technique using block regional off-resonance correction.

The Spiral two-point Dixon (Spiral 2PD) technique has recently been proposed as a method for unambiguous water-fat decomposition in spiral imaging. It also corrects for off-resonance blurring artifacts using only two data sets. In the Spiral 2PD technique, several predetermined off-resonance frequencies are tested to both separate water and fat signals and deblur the decomposed images. Unfortunately, the algorithm is computationally quite intensive since the range of tested frequencies must be set sufficiently large to span the full range of anticipated B(0) variation over the scanned objects. The block regional off-resonance correction (BRORC) algorithm corrects for off-resonance blurring artifacts block by block through the reconstructed image and usually provides several times higher computational efficiency than the conventional frequency-segmented off-resonance correction algorithm. This work shows that both water-fat decomposition and blurring artifact correction can be performed block by block using two spiral images with different TEs and that this new technique (BRORC-Spiral2PD technique) significantly improves the computational efficiency of other Spiral 2PD algorithms, opening new opportunities for spiral imaging.

Iterative Next-Neighbor Regridding (INNG): improved reconstruction from nonuniformly sampled k-space data using rescaled matrices.

The reconstruction of MR images from nonrectilinearly sampled data is complicated by the fact that the inverse 2D Fourier transform (FT) cannot be performed directly on the acquired k-space data set. k-Space gridding is commonly used because it is an efficient reconstruction method. However, conventional gridding requires optimized density compensation functions (DCFs) to avoid profile distortions. Oftentimes, the calculation of optimized DCFs presents an additional challenge in obtaining an accurately gridded reconstruction. Another type of gridding algorithm, the block uniform resampling (BURS) algorithm, often requires singular value decomposition (SVD) regularization to avoid amplification of data imperfections, and under some conditions it is difficult to adjust the regularization parameters. In this work, new reconstruction algorithms for nonuniformly sampled k-space data are presented. In the newly proposed algorithms, high-quality reconstructed images are obtained from an iterative reconstruction that is performed using matrices scaled to sizes greater than that of the target image matrix. A second version partitions the sampled k-space region into several blocks to avoid limitations that could result from performing multiple 2D-FFTs on large data matrices. The newly proposed algorithms are a simple alternative approach to previously proposed optimized gridding algorithms.

Dixon techniques in spiral trajectories with off-resonance correction: a new approach for fat signal suppression without spatial-spectral RF pulses.

Spiral imaging has recently gained acceptance in MR applications requiring rapid data acquisition. One of the main disadvantages of spiral imaging, however, is blurring artifacts that result from off-resonance effects. Spatial-spectral (SPSP) pulses are commonly used to suppress those spins that are chemically shifted from water and lead to off-resonance artifacts. However, SPSP pulses may produce nonuniform fat signal suppression or unwanted water signal suppression when applied in the presence of B(0) field inhomogeneities. Dixon techniques have been developed as methods for water-fat signal decomposition in rectilinear sampling schemes since they can produce unequivocal water-fat signal decomposition even in the presence of B(0) inhomogeneities. This article demonstrates that three-point and two-point Dixon techniques can be extended to conventional spiral and variable-density spiral data acquisitions for unambiguous water-fat decomposition with off-resonance blurring correction. In the spiral three-point Dixon technique, water-fat signal decomposition and image deblurring are performed based on the frequency maps that are directly derived from the acquired images. In the spiral two-point Dixon technique, several predetermined frequencies are tested to create a frequency map. The newly proposed techniques can achieve more effective and more uniform fat signal suppression when compared to the conventional spiral acquisition method with SPSP pulses.

Block regional off-resonance correction (BRORC): a fast and effective deblurring method for spiral imaging.

One primary disadvantage of spiral imaging is blurring artifact due to off-resonance effects. The conventional frequency segmented off-resonance correction method that is performed over the entire image is computationally intense due to the large number of fast Fourier transforms (FFTs) required. Here, a new fast off-resonance correction method, block regional off-resonance correction (BRORC), is presented. In this method, off-resonance correction proceeds block-by-block through the reconstructed image with FFTs performed on matrices that are smaller than the full image matrix. The BRORC algorithm is typically several times more computationally efficient than the conventional off-resonance correction algorithm. Additional computational reductions can be expected for the BRORC if only specific image regions require deblurring. The newly proposed off-resonance correction method offers significant speed advantages and equivalent image quality when compared to conventional off-resonance correction methods.

Novel interleaved spiral imaging motion correction technique using orbital navigators.

Although spiral imaging seldom produces apparent artifacts related to flow, it remains sensitive to rapid object motion. In this article, a new correction method is presented for rapid rigid body motion in interleaved spiral imaging. With this technique, an identical circular navigator k-space trajectory is linked to each spiral trajectory. Data inconsistency due to both rotation and translation among spiral interleaves can be corrected by evaluating the magnitudes and phases of the data contained in the navigator "ring." Further, it is difficult to create a frequency field map for off-resonance correction when an object moves during a scan, because there is motion-dependent misregistration between the two images acquired with different TEs. However, this difficulty can be overcome by combining the motion-correction method with a recently proposed technique (off-resonance correction using variable-density spirals (ORC-VDS)), thereby enabling both motion compensation and off-resonance correction with no additional scanning.

Keyhole Dixon method for faster, perceptually equivalent fat suppression.

PURPOSE: To reduce the acquisition time associated with the two-point Dixon fat suppression technique by combining a keyhole in-phase (Water + Fat) k-space data set with a full out-of-phase (Water - Fat) k-space data set and optimizing the keyhole size with a perceptual difference model. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A set of keyhole Dixon images was created by varying the number of lines in the keyhole data set. Off-resonance correction was incorporated into the image reconstruction process to improve the homogeneity of the fat suppression. A perceptual difference model (PDM) was validated with human observer experiments and used to compare the keyhole images to images from a full two-point Dixon acquisition. The PDM was used to determine the smallest keyhole width required to obtain perceptual equivalence to images obtained from the full two-point Dixon method. RESULTS: In experimental phantom studies, the keyhole Dixon image reconstructed from 96 of 192 Water + Fat k-space lines and 192 Water - Fat k-space lines was perceptually equivalent to the full (192 + 192) two-point Dixon images, resulting in a 25% reduction in scan time. Clinical images of a volunteer's knee, orbits, and abdomen created from the smallest, perceptually equivalent keyhole width resulted in a 27%-38% reduction in total scan time. CONCLUSION: This method improves the temporal efficiency of the conventional two-point Dixon technique and may prove especially useful for high-field systems where specific absorption rate (SAR) limits will constrain radiofrequency (RF)-based fat suppression techniques.