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Ultrashort Echo Time for Improved Positive-Contrast Manganese-Enhanced MRI of Cancer
OBJECTIVE: Manganese (Mn) is a positive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent that has been used to obtain physiological, biochemical, and molecular biological information. There is great interest to broaden its applications, but a major challenge is to increase detection sensitivity. Anot...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3587583/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23484042 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058617 |
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author | Nofiele, Joris Tchouala Cheng, Hai-Ling Margaret |
author_facet | Nofiele, Joris Tchouala Cheng, Hai-Ling Margaret |
author_sort | Nofiele, Joris Tchouala |
collection | PubMed |
description | OBJECTIVE: Manganese (Mn) is a positive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent that has been used to obtain physiological, biochemical, and molecular biological information. There is great interest to broaden its applications, but a major challenge is to increase detection sensitivity. Another challenge is distinguishing regions of Mn-related signal enhancement from background tissue with inherently similar contrast. To overcome these limitations, this study investigates the use of ultrashort echo time (UTE) and subtraction UTE (SubUTE) imaging for more sensitive and specific determination of Mn accumulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Simulations were performed to investigate the feasibility of UTE and SubUTE for Mn-enhanced MRI and to optimize imaging parameters. Phantoms containing aqueous Mn solutions were imaged on a MRI scanner to validate simulations predictions. Breast cancer cells that are very aggressive (MDA-MB-231 and a more aggressive variant LM2) and a less aggressive cell line (MCF7) were labeled with Mn and imaged on MRI. All imaging was performed on a 3 Tesla scanner and compared UTE and SubUTE against conventional T (1)-weighted spoiled gradient echo (SPGR) imaging. RESULTS: Simulations and phantom imaging demonstrated that UTE and SubUTE provided sustained and linearly increasing positive contrast over a wide range of Mn concentrations, whereas conventional SPGR displayed signal plateau and eventual decrease. Higher flip angles are optimal for imaging higher Mn concentrations. Breast cancer cell imaging demonstrated that UTE and SubUTE provided high sensitivity, with SubUTE providing background suppression for improved specificity and eliminating the need for a pre-contrast baseline image. The SubUTE sequence allowed the best distinction of aggressive breast cancer cells. CONCLUSIONS: UTE and SubUTE allow more sensitive and specific positive-contrast detection of Mn enhancement. This imaging capability can potentially open many new doors for Mn-enhanced MRI in vascular, cellular, and molecular imaging. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3587583 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-35875832013-03-12 Ultrashort Echo Time for Improved Positive-Contrast Manganese-Enhanced MRI of Cancer Nofiele, Joris Tchouala Cheng, Hai-Ling Margaret PLoS One Research Article OBJECTIVE: Manganese (Mn) is a positive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent that has been used to obtain physiological, biochemical, and molecular biological information. There is great interest to broaden its applications, but a major challenge is to increase detection sensitivity. Another challenge is distinguishing regions of Mn-related signal enhancement from background tissue with inherently similar contrast. To overcome these limitations, this study investigates the use of ultrashort echo time (UTE) and subtraction UTE (SubUTE) imaging for more sensitive and specific determination of Mn accumulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Simulations were performed to investigate the feasibility of UTE and SubUTE for Mn-enhanced MRI and to optimize imaging parameters. Phantoms containing aqueous Mn solutions were imaged on a MRI scanner to validate simulations predictions. Breast cancer cells that are very aggressive (MDA-MB-231 and a more aggressive variant LM2) and a less aggressive cell line (MCF7) were labeled with Mn and imaged on MRI. All imaging was performed on a 3 Tesla scanner and compared UTE and SubUTE against conventional T (1)-weighted spoiled gradient echo (SPGR) imaging. RESULTS: Simulations and phantom imaging demonstrated that UTE and SubUTE provided sustained and linearly increasing positive contrast over a wide range of Mn concentrations, whereas conventional SPGR displayed signal plateau and eventual decrease. Higher flip angles are optimal for imaging higher Mn concentrations. Breast cancer cell imaging demonstrated that UTE and SubUTE provided high sensitivity, with SubUTE providing background suppression for improved specificity and eliminating the need for a pre-contrast baseline image. The SubUTE sequence allowed the best distinction of aggressive breast cancer cells. CONCLUSIONS: UTE and SubUTE allow more sensitive and specific positive-contrast detection of Mn enhancement. This imaging capability can potentially open many new doors for Mn-enhanced MRI in vascular, cellular, and molecular imaging. Public Library of Science 2013-03-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3587583/ /pubmed/23484042 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058617 Text en © 2013 Nofiele, Cheng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Nofiele, Joris Tchouala Cheng, Hai-Ling Margaret Ultrashort Echo Time for Improved Positive-Contrast Manganese-Enhanced MRI of Cancer |
title | Ultrashort Echo Time for Improved Positive-Contrast Manganese-Enhanced MRI of Cancer |
title_full | Ultrashort Echo Time for Improved Positive-Contrast Manganese-Enhanced MRI of Cancer |
title_fullStr | Ultrashort Echo Time for Improved Positive-Contrast Manganese-Enhanced MRI of Cancer |
title_full_unstemmed | Ultrashort Echo Time for Improved Positive-Contrast Manganese-Enhanced MRI of Cancer |
title_short | Ultrashort Echo Time for Improved Positive-Contrast Manganese-Enhanced MRI of Cancer |
title_sort | ultrashort echo time for improved positive-contrast manganese-enhanced mri of cancer |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3587583/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23484042 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0058617 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT nofielejoristchouala ultrashortechotimeforimprovedpositivecontrastmanganeseenhancedmriofcancer AT chenghailingmargaret ultrashortechotimeforimprovedpositivecontrastmanganeseenhancedmriofcancer |