Reliability of Gradient-Echo Magnetic Resonance Elastography of Lumbar Muscles: Phantom and Clinical Studies

Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) has been used to successfully characterize the mechanical behavior of healthy and diseased muscles, but no study has been performed to investigate the reliability of MRE on lumbar muscles. The objective of this work was to determine the reliability of MRE techni...

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Main Authors: Tsyh-Jyi Hsieh, Ming-Chung Chou, Yi-Chu Chen, Yi-Chen Chou, Chien-Hung Lin, Clement Kuen-Huang Chen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-06-01
Series:Diagnostics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/12/6/1385
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author Tsyh-Jyi Hsieh
Ming-Chung Chou
Yi-Chu Chen
Yi-Chen Chou
Chien-Hung Lin
Clement Kuen-Huang Chen
author_facet Tsyh-Jyi Hsieh
Ming-Chung Chou
Yi-Chu Chen
Yi-Chen Chou
Chien-Hung Lin
Clement Kuen-Huang Chen
author_sort Tsyh-Jyi Hsieh
collection DOAJ
description Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) has been used to successfully characterize the mechanical behavior of healthy and diseased muscles, but no study has been performed to investigate the reliability of MRE on lumbar muscles. The objective of this work was to determine the reliability of MRE techniques on lumbar muscles in both ex vivo phantom and in vivo human studies. In this study, fresh porcine leg muscles were used in the phantom study, and 80 healthy adults (38.6 ± 11.2 years, 40 women) were recruited in the human study. Five repeated stiffness maps were obtained from both the phantom and human muscles by using a gradient-echo MRE sequence with a pneumatic vibration on a 1.5 T MR scanner. The technical failure rate, coefficient of variation (CV), and quality score were assessed to evaluate the reliability of MRE, respectively. Analysis of variance was performed to compare the stiffness between different lumbar muscles, and the difference was significant if <i>p</i> < 0.05 after Bonferroni correction. The results showed that the MRE achieved a zero technical failure rate and a low CV of stiffness (6.24 ± 1.41%) in the phantom muscles. However, in the human study, the MRE exhibited high CVs of stiffness (21.57%–25.24%) in the lumbar muscles, and the technical failure rate was higher in psoas muscles (60.0–66.3% in) than in paraspinal muscles (0.0–2.5%). Further, higher quality scores were noticed in paraspinal muscles (7.31–7.71) than those in psoas muscles (1.83–2.06). In conclusion, the MRE was a reliable technique to investigate the mechanical property of lumbar muscles, but it was less reliable to assess stiffness in psoas muscles than paraspinal muscles.
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spelling doaj.art-20bade2ca2544679a605353c15bd5b932023-11-23T16:17:17ZengMDPI AGDiagnostics2075-44182022-06-01126138510.3390/diagnostics12061385Reliability of Gradient-Echo Magnetic Resonance Elastography of Lumbar Muscles: Phantom and Clinical StudiesTsyh-Jyi Hsieh0Ming-Chung Chou1Yi-Chu Chen2Yi-Chen Chou3Chien-Hung Lin4Clement Kuen-Huang Chen5Department of Medical Imaging, Chi Mei Medical Center, Yongkang, Tainan 71004, TaiwanDepartment of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, TaiwanDepartment of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 80708, TaiwanDepartment of Medical Imaging, Chi Mei Medical Center, Yongkang, Tainan 71004, TaiwanDepartment of Medical Imaging, Chi Mei Medical Center, Yongkang, Tainan 71004, TaiwanDepartment of Medical Imaging, Chi Mei Medical Center, Yongkang, Tainan 71004, TaiwanMagnetic resonance elastography (MRE) has been used to successfully characterize the mechanical behavior of healthy and diseased muscles, but no study has been performed to investigate the reliability of MRE on lumbar muscles. The objective of this work was to determine the reliability of MRE techniques on lumbar muscles in both ex vivo phantom and in vivo human studies. In this study, fresh porcine leg muscles were used in the phantom study, and 80 healthy adults (38.6 ± 11.2 years, 40 women) were recruited in the human study. Five repeated stiffness maps were obtained from both the phantom and human muscles by using a gradient-echo MRE sequence with a pneumatic vibration on a 1.5 T MR scanner. The technical failure rate, coefficient of variation (CV), and quality score were assessed to evaluate the reliability of MRE, respectively. Analysis of variance was performed to compare the stiffness between different lumbar muscles, and the difference was significant if <i>p</i> < 0.05 after Bonferroni correction. The results showed that the MRE achieved a zero technical failure rate and a low CV of stiffness (6.24 ± 1.41%) in the phantom muscles. However, in the human study, the MRE exhibited high CVs of stiffness (21.57%–25.24%) in the lumbar muscles, and the technical failure rate was higher in psoas muscles (60.0–66.3% in) than in paraspinal muscles (0.0–2.5%). Further, higher quality scores were noticed in paraspinal muscles (7.31–7.71) than those in psoas muscles (1.83–2.06). In conclusion, the MRE was a reliable technique to investigate the mechanical property of lumbar muscles, but it was less reliable to assess stiffness in psoas muscles than paraspinal muscles.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/12/6/1385MR elastographystiffnesstechnical failure ratequality scoremusclelumbar spine
spellingShingle Tsyh-Jyi Hsieh
Ming-Chung Chou
Yi-Chu Chen
Yi-Chen Chou
Chien-Hung Lin
Clement Kuen-Huang Chen
Reliability of Gradient-Echo Magnetic Resonance Elastography of Lumbar Muscles: Phantom and Clinical Studies
Diagnostics
MR elastography
stiffness
technical failure rate
quality score
muscle
lumbar spine
title Reliability of Gradient-Echo Magnetic Resonance Elastography of Lumbar Muscles: Phantom and Clinical Studies
title_full Reliability of Gradient-Echo Magnetic Resonance Elastography of Lumbar Muscles: Phantom and Clinical Studies
title_fullStr Reliability of Gradient-Echo Magnetic Resonance Elastography of Lumbar Muscles: Phantom and Clinical Studies
title_full_unstemmed Reliability of Gradient-Echo Magnetic Resonance Elastography of Lumbar Muscles: Phantom and Clinical Studies
title_short Reliability of Gradient-Echo Magnetic Resonance Elastography of Lumbar Muscles: Phantom and Clinical Studies
title_sort reliability of gradient echo magnetic resonance elastography of lumbar muscles phantom and clinical studies
topic MR elastography
stiffness
technical failure rate
quality score
muscle
lumbar spine
url https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4418/12/6/1385
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AT yichenchou reliabilityofgradientechomagneticresonanceelastographyoflumbarmusclesphantomandclinicalstudies
AT chienhunglin reliabilityofgradientechomagneticresonanceelastographyoflumbarmusclesphantomandclinicalstudies
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