Surface Coil Intensity Correction in Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Spinal Metastases

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the clinical application of phased-array surface coil intensity correction in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in spinal metastases. METHODS: 3 phantoms and 50 patients with a corresponding total number of 80 spinal metastases were included in this study. Fast spin echo T1- and T2- weighted MRI with and without surface coil intensity correction was routinely performed for all phantoms and patients. Phantoms were evaluated by means of variance to mean ratio of signal intensity on both T1- and T2- weighted MRI obtained with and without surface coil intensity correction. Spinal metastases were evaluated by image quality scores; reading time per case on both T1- and T2- weighted MRI obtained with and without surface coil intensity correction. RESULTS: Spinal metastases were diagnosed more successfully on MRI with surface coil intensity correction than on MRI with conventional surface coil technique. The variance to mean ratio of signal intensity was 53.36% for original T1-weighted MRI and 53.58% for original T2-weighted MRI. The variance to mean ratio of signal intensity was reduced to 18.99% for T1-weighted MRI with surface coil intensity correction and 22.77% for T2-weighted MRI with surface coil intensity correction. The overall image quality scores (interface conspicuity of lesion and details of lesion) were significantly higher than those of the original MRI. The reading time per case was shorter for MRI with surface coil intensity correction than for MRI without surface coil intensity correction. CONCLUSIONS: Phased-array surface coil intensity correction in MRIs of spinal metastases provides improvements in image quality that leads to more successfully detection and assessment of spinal metastases than original MRI.