BACKGROUND Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging helps to determine abnormal brain tissue conditions by evaluating metabolite concentrations. Although a powerful technique, it is underutilized in routine clinical studies because of its long scan times. OBJECTIVE In this study, we evaluated the feasibility of scan time reduction in metabolic imaging using compressed-sensing-based MR spectroscopic imaging in pediatric patients undergoing routine brain exams. MATERIALS AND METHODS We retrospectively evaluated compressed-sensing reconstructions in MR spectroscopic imaging datasets from 20 pediatric patients (11 males, 9 females; average age: 5.4±4.5 years; age range: 3 days to 16 years). We performed retrospective under-sampling of the MR spectroscopic imaging datasets to simulate accelerations of 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 7- and 10-fold, with subsequent reconstructions in MATLAB. Metabolite maps of N-acetylaspartate, creatine, choline and lactate (where applicable) were quantitatively evaluated in terms of the root-mean-square error (RMSE), peak amplitudes and total scan time. We used the two-tailed paired t-test along with linear regression analysis to statistically compare the compressed-sensing reconstructions at each acceleration with the fully sampled reference dataset. RESULTS High fidelity was maintained in the compressed-sensing MR spectroscopic imaging reconstructions from 50% to 80% under-sampling, with the RMSE not exceeding 3% in any dataset. Metabolite intensities and ratios evaluated on a voxel-by-voxel basis showed no statistically significant differences and mean metabolite intensities showed high correlation compared to the fully sampled reference dataset up to an acceleration factor of 5. CONCLUSION Compressed-sensing MR spectroscopic imaging has the potential to reduce MR spectroscopic imaging scan times for pediatric patients, with negligible information loss.

中文翻译：

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使用压缩感测的小儿大脑的二维磁共振波谱成像。

背景技术磁共振波谱成像通过评估代谢物浓度来帮助确定异常的脑组织状况。尽管这项技术功能强大，但由于扫描时间长，因此在常规临床研究中并未得到充分利用。目的在这项研究中，我们评估了在接受常规脑部检查的儿科患者中，使用基于压缩传感的MR光谱成像减少代谢成像中扫描时间的可行性。材料与方法我们回顾性评估了20位儿科患者（11位男性，9位女性；平均年龄：5.4±4.5岁；年龄范围：3天至16岁）的MR光谱成像数据集中的压缩感知重建。我们对MR光谱成像数据集进行了回顾性欠采样，以模拟2倍，3倍，4倍，5倍，7倍和10倍的加速度，随后在MATLAB中进行重构。根据均方根误差（RMSE），峰幅度和总扫描时间对N-乙酰天门冬氨酸，肌酸，胆碱和乳酸（如果适用）的代谢产物图进行定量评估。我们使用了两尾配对t检验以及线性回归分析，以统计方式比较每次加速时的压缩感知重建与完全采样的参考数据集。结果压缩传感MR光谱成像重建中的高保真度从欠采样的50％到80％，在任何数据集中，RMSE均不超过3％。