Reproducibility of magnetic resonance fingerprinting-based T(1) mapping of the healthy prostate at 1.5 and 3.0 T: A proof-of-concept study

Facilitating clinical translation of quantitative imaging techniques has been suggested as means of improving interobserver agreement and diagnostic accuracy of multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) of the prostate. One such technique, magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF), has significant competitive advantages over conventional mapping techniques in terms of its multi-site reproducibility, short scanning time and inherent robustness to motion. It has also been shown to improve the detection of clinically significant prostate cancer when added to standard mpMRI sequences, however, the existing studies have all been conducted on 3.0 T MRI systems, limiting the technique’s use on 1.5 T MRI scanners that are still more widely used for prostate imaging across the globe. The aim of this proof-of-concept study was, therefore, to evaluate the cross-system reproducibility of prostate MRF T(1) in healthy volunteers (HVs) using 1.5 and 3.0 T MRI systems. The initial validation of MRF T(1) against gold standard inversion recovery fast spin echo (IR-FSE) T(1) in the ISMRM/NIST MRI system revealed a strong linear correlation between phantom-derived MRF and IR-FSE T(1) values was observed at both field strengths (R(2) = 0.998 at 1.5T and R(2) = 0.993 at 3T; p = < 0.0001 for both). In young HVs, inter-scanner CVs demonstrated marginal differences across all tissues with the highest difference of 3% observed in fat (2% at 1.5T vs 5% at 3T). At both field strengths, MRF T(1) could confidently differentiate prostate peripheral zone from transition zone, which highlights the high quantitative potential of the technique given the known difficulty of tissue differentiation in this age group. The high cross-system reproducibility of MRF T(1) relaxometry of the healthy prostate observed in this preliminary study, therefore, supports the technique’s prospective clinical validation as part of larger trials employing 1.5 T MRI systems, which are still widely used clinically for routine mpMRI of the prostate.