Motivation: APTw-MRI evolves for brain tumor diagnosis and treatment monitoring, while metrics/visualization are still debated. MTR-asymmetry under/overestimates chemical exchange at high/low MT, but MT-correction enhances background-noise. Fluid-suppression simplifies diagnosis in necrosis (cysts). While partly addressed, a combined method is needed. Goal(s): Define an MT-correction with extra fluid suppression and noise reduction. Evaluate in glioblastoma patients. Approach: MT-correction with MTRrex for solid tumors, rescaled for extra fluid suppression (necrosis) and a noise limit (NAWM), is compared to previous proposals on 12 glioblastoma patients with 2D FSE, 2μT/2s saturation on 3.0T-MRI. Results: MT-correction in solid tumors is shown with high CNR and efficient suppression of necrosis. Impact: The rescaled metric may provide a standard for displaying APTw contrast in tumor diagnosis and response assessment, combining MT-corrected and low noise quantitative assessment of chemical exchange in solid tumor areas with extra fluid suppression for efficient clinical reading.
Keupp et al. (Tue,) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 5 closely related papers on similar clinical questions. Consider them for comparative context: