The Use of Synthetic MRI in Pediatric Brain

Abstract

Synthetic MRI, a multi-slice, multi-echo, and multi-delay acquisition, enables simultaneous quantification of R1 and R2 relaxation rates (the inverses of T1 and T2 relaxation times, respectively), proton density (PD), and B1 field in only about 6 minutes for full head coverage. Based on the quantitative values, individualized contrast-weighted imaging, automated brain tissue segmentation and volumetry, and myelin measurement can be achieved by using post-processing software, called SyMRI (SyntheticMR, Linköping, Sweden). The use of synthetic MRI may overcome the limitations of conventional MRI in pediatric brain imaging. We can scan pediatric patients by synthetic MRI without adjusting MR parameters to tissue properties specific to pediatric populations. Furthermore, the scan time can be shorter than that of conventional MRI, which is critical in the pediatric population. Here we summarize and review the use of SyMRI in imaging of the pediatric brain, including the basic principles of MR quantification along with its features, clinical applications, and limitations.