Purpose: In multiple sclerosis (MS), a juxtacortical lesion at the border between the gray matter (GM) and subcortical white matter (WM) may often involve the GM. A recently developed, phase-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique “phase difference enhanced imaging (PADRE)” can delineate the GM and WM clearly due to the difference in myelin concentration. We evaluated whether PADRE is useful for the detection of GM involvement in the juxtacortical MS lesions.
Methods: One neuroradiologist reviewed the conventional MRI in 13 MS patients and selected 48 juxtacortical lesions. At the first reading session with the conventional MRI alone (T₂-weighted imaging, and two-dimensional and three-dimensional fluid-attenuated inversion recovery), two other neuroradiologists classified the lesions into three patterns according to their anatomical locations: (a) subcortical WM lesions involving the subcortical WM alone; (b) intracortical (IC) lesions involving the GM alone; (c) mixed GM/subcortical WM (mixed) lesions involving the both subcortical WM and GM. We defined the subcortical WM as a WM within a distance of 10 mm from inner edge of the GM. For the analyses, we excluded the white matter lesions further than 10 mm from inner edge of the GM. At the second reading session MRI and PADRE were available and the radiologists re-evaluated their prior classification.
Results: At the first reading session, 27 lesions were classified as (a), 1 as (b), and 20 as (c). Therefore, a total of 21 lesions (44%) were judged to involve the GM. At the second reading session, the classification of 15 (31%) lesions changed; all 15 lesions were judged to involve the GM on the PADRE. Interobserver agreement (kappa value) was 0.84 for the first- and 0.95 for the second reading session.
Conclusion: PADRE is useful for detecting GM involvement of the juxtacortical MS lesions.

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Background and Purpose: The signal information per voxels of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for vessel wall could reflect the pathologic features of atherosclerotic vessels. The aim of this study is to evaluate the usefulness of magnetic resonance voxel-based histogram (VBH) of atherosclerotic basilar artery in patients with isolated pontine infarctions (PIs).

Materials and Methods: Wall and lumen of basilar artery were segmented from high resolution MR of 42 patients with isolated PI and 10 normal volunteers. VBHs were obtained after normalization by dividing the intensity of segmented wall with the intensity of non-infarcted area of pons. The variables of VBH included area (A), mean signal intensity (SI), standard deviation (SD), kurtosis (K), and skewness (SK) and area stenosis [AS; A^wall/(A^wall + A^lumen)] were compared according to the MRI-modified American Heart Association (AHA) atherosclerotic plaque schema, and between the subgroups of PI (lacunar: LPI and paramedian: PPI).

Results: According to the MRI-modified AHA atherosclerotic plaque schema, A^wall/T₁ (mean area of wall on T₁-weighted MRI), SI^wall/T₁, SD^wall/T₁, SK^wall/T₁, K^wall/T₁, A^lumen/T₁, and AS^T₁ showed statistical differences. AHA IV–VII showed higher A^wall/T₁, SI^wall/T₁, and AS^T₁ than normal control. PPI showed statistical differences in A^wall/T₁, SI^wall/T₁, SK ^wall/T₁, and A^wall/T₂ than those of normal control after post hoc test, whereas LPI in A^wall/T₁ and A^wall/T₂ (P < 0.05, Kruskal-Wallis test, Dunnett T3 procedure).

Conclusions: VBH analysis can provide the quantitative information with regard to volume as well as composition of the atherosclerotic plaque in the basilar artery. The difference in patterns of VBH might be further useful in characterizing PIs with presumably different pathogenesis.

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Purpose: An understanding of the repeatability of measured results is important for both the atlas-based and voxel-based morphometry (VBM) methods of magnetic resonance (MR) brain volumetry. However, many recent studies that have investigated the repeatability of brain volume measurements have been performed using static magnetic fields of 1–4 tesla, and no study has used a low-strength static magnetic field. The aim of this study was to investigate the repeatability of measured volumes using the atlas-based method and a low-strength static magnetic field (0.4 tesla).
Materials and Methods: Ten healthy volunteers participated in this study. Using a 0.4 tesla magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner and a quadrature head coil, three-dimensional T₁-weighted images (3D-T₁WIs) were obtained from each subject, twice on the same day. VBM8 software was used to construct segmented normalized images [gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) images]. The regions-of-interest (ROIs) of GM, WM, CSF, hippocampus (HC), orbital gyrus (OG), and cerebellum posterior lobe (CPL) were generated using WFU PickAtlas. The percentage change was defined as[100 × (measured volume with first segmented image − mean volume in each subject)/(mean volume in each subject)]The average percentage change was calculated as the percentage change in the 6 ROIs of the 10 subjects.
Results: The mean of the average percentage changes for each ROI was as follows: GM, 0.556%; WM, 0.324%; CSF, 0.573%; HC, 0.645%; OG, 1.74%; and CPL, 0.471%. The average percentage change was higher for the orbital gyrus than for the other ROIs.
Conclusion: We consider that repeatability of the atlas-based method is similar between 0.4 and 1.5 tesla MR scanners. To our knowledge, this is the first report to show that the level of repeatability with a 0.4 tesla MR scanner is adequate for the estimation of brain volume change by the atlas-based method.

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Purpose: To compare short tau inversion recovery (STIR) images with slice encoding for metal artifact correction (SEMAC)-corrected magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of spectral presaturation with inversion recovery (SPIR) or inversion recovery (IR) at 3T in patients with metallic spinal instrumentation.

Methods: Following institutional review board’s approval, 71 vertebrae with interbody fixation in 26 patients who underwent transpedicular spondylodesis with spinal metallic prostheses were analyzed with SEMAC spinal MRI. All the fixated vertebrae were examined with STIR, and 41 vertebrae of 15 patients were scanned with SEMAC-SPIR T₂-weighted MRI. The remaining 30 vertebrae of 11 patients were scanned with SEMAC-IR T₂-weighted MRI. Two musculoskeletal radiologists compared the image sets and qualitatively analyzed the images with a five-point scale that included artifact reduction around the metallic implant and visualization of the rod and pedicle. Quantitative assessments were performed by calculating the signal intensity ratio of the fixated vertebra and non-metallic vertebra and by calculating the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) of the vertebrae. A paired t-test was used for the statistical analyses.

Results: The SEMAC-IR MRI had a significant decrease in the metallic artifact area (P < 0.05), while the SEMAC-SPIR MRI yielded significantly increased artifact areas (P < 0.05). However, the signal intensity ratios (i.e., metal-induced signal pile-up) were not significantly different (P > 0.05) between the STIR and SEMAC MRI. The SNR of the SEMAC MRI was significantly lower than the SNR of the STIR (P < 0.05). The metal artifact reduction scores were significantly higher in the SEMAC-SPIR MRI (P < 0.05).

Conclusion: Despite the relatively larger artifact size and lower SNRs, the SEMAC-SPIR MRI was superior to the other types of fat-suppressed MRI of SEMAC-IR or T₂-weighted STIR MRI. However, the drawbacks of high signal pile-up, large artifact size, and relatively low SNRs require further investigation to determine the best method for fat-suppressed MRI of metallic implants.

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Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility of a simple estimation for the endolymphatic volume ratio (endolymph volume/total lymph volume = %EL_volume) from an area ratio obtained from only one slice (%EL_1slice) or from three slices (%EL_3slices). The %EL_volume, calculated from a time-consuming measurement on all magnetic resonance (MR) slices, was compared to the %EL_1slice and the %EL_3slices.
Methods: In 40 ears of 20 patients with a clinical suspicion of endolymphatic hydrops, MR imaging was performed 4 hours after intravenous administration of a single dose of gadolinium-based contrast material (IV-SD-GBCM). Using previously reported HYDROPS2-Mi2 MR imaging, the %EL_volume values in the cochlea and the vestibule were measured separately by two observers. The correlations between the %EL_1slice or the %EL_3slices and the %EL_volume values were evaluated.
Results: A strong linear correlation was observed between the %EL_volume and the %EL_3slices or the %EL_1slice in the cochlea. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was 0.968 (3 slices) and 0.965 (1 slice) for observer A, and 0.968 (3 slices) and 0.964 (1 slice) for observer B (P < 0.001, for all). A strong linear correlation was also observed between the %EL_volume and the %EL_3slices or the %EL_1slice in the vestibule. The Pearson correlation coefficient (r) was 0.980 (3 slices) and 0.953 (1 slice) for observer A, and 0.979 (3 slices) and 0.952 (1 slice) for observer B (P < 0.001, for all). The high intra-class correlation coefficients (0.991–0.997) between the endolymph volume ratios by two observers were observed in both the cochlea and the vestibule for values of the %EL_volume, the %EL_3slices and the %EL_1slice.
Conclusion: The %EL_volume might be easily estimated from the %EL_3slices or the %EL_1slice.

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Purpose: To investigate the characteristics of arterial spin-labeling magnetic resonance imaging (ASL-MRI) in central nervous system (CNS) infection.
Methods: Thirty-two patients with CNS infections underwent a pulsed ASL-MRI. The findings on ASL-MRI were retrospectively assessed for the pathogens as well as each of the following four pathology classified based on conventional MRI findings: non-purulent parenchymal involvement, meningeal involvement, abscess formation, and ventricular involvement.
Results: Among the 17 patients with non-purulent parenchymal involvement, ASL-MRI revealed high perfusion in 8 patients (47%) and low perfusion 1 patient (6%). Especially, four of five patients (80%) with definite or suspected herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection showed high perfusion on ASL-MRI. Seventeen of 22 patients (77%) with meningeal involvement showed high perfusion along the cerebral sulci irrespective of the pathogens. Meanwhile, 4 of 16 lesions (25%) with abscess formation showed low perfusion and one of six patients (17%) with ventricular involvement had high perfusion.
Conclusions: The characteristics of ASL-MRI in CNS infections were clearly delineated. ASL-MRI could be helpful for monitoring the brain function in CNS infections noninvasively.

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Echo-planar imaging (EPI) sequences were developed for a 9.4 Tesla vertical standard bore (~54 mm) superconducting magnet using an unshielded gradient coil optimized for live mice imaging and a data correction technique with reference scans. Because EPI requires fast switching of intense magnetic field gradients, eddy currents were induced in the surrounding metallic materials, e.g., the room temperature bore, and this produced serious artifacts on the EPI images. We solved the problem using an unshielded gradient coil set of proper size (outer diameter = 39 mm, inner diameter = 32 mm) with time control of the current rise and reference scans. The obtained EPI images of a phantom and a plant sample were almost artifact-free and demonstrated the promise of our approach.

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We evaluated the visibility of the thoracic duct by fast balanced turbo field echo with extended k-space sampling (bTFEe). The thoracic duct of 10 healthy volunteers was scanned by bTFEe using a 1.5-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which was acquired in approximately 2 minutes. Three-dimensional (3D) turbo spin-echo (TSE) was obtained for comparison. The thoracic duct including draining location of the venous system was overall well visualized on bTFEe, compared to TSE.

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Epithelioid trophoblastic tumor (ETT) is a rare gestational trophoblastic neoplasm of chorionic-type intermediate trophoblasts, and it is most frequently located in the lower uterine segment and endocervix. Due to the epithelial-growth pattern with geographic necrosis exhibited by the neoplastic cells, ETT is commonly confused, both clinically and pathologically, with squamous cell carcinoma. Although there have been no previous reports of ETT focusing on computed tomography (CT) or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings, we report a case of uterine ETT with special attention to the MRI findings referring to the pathological findings and MR images of previous reports. A 42-year-old Japanese woman (gravid 1, para 1) presented with uterus enlargement during screening, and complained of recent-onset lower abdominal pain. The MRI showed a solid tumor throughout the entire myometrium of the lower uterine segment, with the hemorrhagic cystic portion extending to the posterior subserosal space. Following hysterectomy, the final pathological diagnosis was ETT. An ETT is essentially a solid tumor composed of intermediate trophoblasts that exhibit an epithelial-like growth pattern and contain geographic necrosis with calcification. In our case, MRI revealed a non-specific-intensity solid tumor in the lower uterine segment with massive necrosis and hemorrhage extending to the subserosa. While it is difficult to distinguish between ETT and uterine carcinomas, recognition of certain tumor shapes and necrosis could enable more accurate diagnosis before treatment.

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