Repeatability of image quality in very low field MRI

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that very low field MRI at 0.05T exhibits high repeatability in SNR and magnetic field homogeneity over ten days, with moderate repeatability in image uniformity, supporting its reliability for longitudinal imaging.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive protocol for assessing repeatability of image quality metrics in very low field MRI, including environmental and hardware factors, and compares results with 3T data.

Findings

SNR is highly repeatable with a CV of 4.9%.

Magnetic field inhomogeneity effects show a CV of 13.7%.

Image uniformity has moderate repeatability with a CV of 10.6%.

Abstract

We investigated the repeatability of image quality metrics such as SNR, image uniformity, and geometrical distortion at 0.05T over ten days and three sessions per day. The measurements included temperature, humidity, transmit frequency, off-resonance maps, and 3D turbo spin echo (TSE) images of an in vitro phantom. This resulted in a protocol with nine pulse sequences. We also acquired a 3T data set for reference. The image quality metrics included computing SNR, image non-uniformity, and eccentricity (to assess geometrical distortion) to investigate the repeatability of 0.05T image quality. The image reconstruction included drift correction, k-space filtering, and off-resonance correction. We computed the coefficient of variation (CV) of the experimental parameters and the resulting image quality metrics to assess repeatability. The range of temperature measured during the study was within 1.50C. The off-resonance maps acquired before and after the 3D TSE showed similar hotspots and changed mainly by a global constant. The SNR measurements were highly repeatable across sessions and over the ten days, quantified by a CV of 4.9%. The magnetic field inhomogeneity effects quantified by eccentricity showed a CV of 13.7% but less than 5.1% in two of the three sessions over ten days. The use of conjugate phase reconstruction mitigated geometrical distortion artifacts. The repeatability of image uniformity was moderate at 10.6%, with two of three sessions resulting in a CV of less than 7.8%. Temperature and humidity did not significantly affect SNR and mean frequency drift within the ranges of these environmental factors investigated. We found that humidity and temperature in the range investigated did not impact SNR and frequency. Our findings indicate high repeatability for SNR and magnetic field homogeneity; and moderate repeatability for image uniformity.