European Radiology: The value of three-dimensional gradient echo sequence reconstruction images based on compressed sensing in the diagnosis of jaw cancer

At present, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and multi-row computed tomography (MDCT) are one of the most common imaging modalities for preoperative evaluation of
oral cancer.
Although magnetic resonance imaging provides superior soft-tissue contrast, longer scan times are a major limitation
associated with this technique.

Compressed sensing (CS) is a recent technological breakthrough in accelerated MRI acquisition, which can reconstruct data
from highly undersampled measurements.
It has recently been reported that the three-dimensional T1 turbofield echo and compression SENSE (CS-3D-T1TFE) combined with CS and sensitivity coding (SENSE) sequences provide technical support
for the compression of oral and maxillofacial MRI scan time.
This technique reduces acquisition time to less than 30% of the time required for a two-dimensional multilayer spin-echo (2D-MS-SE) sequence, while maintaining the same or higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and image quality
.

Recently, a study published in the journal European Radiology compared the display and division of CS-3D-T1TFE images and MDCT images for mandibular cancer, and compared the two sets of images with the histopathological results that are the gold standard to verify the usefulness and value
of CS-3D-T1TFE reconstruction images.

This study retrospectively included 24 patients with mandibular squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), each of whom underwent CS-3D-T1TFE and MDCT prior to surgery
.
For both examinations, a 0.
5 mm layer thickness coronal image and a 0.
5 mm layer thickness flat image
perpendicular to and parallel to the teeth were constructed.
The two radiologists scored bone invasion on three types of indicators: cortical bone, cancellous bone, and mandibular canal (MC), and assessed the agreement
between scorers by weighted Karpa statistics.
Of the 24 patients who underwent surgery, the correlation between bone aggressiveness and histopathological evaluation was assessed using the Pearson correlation coefficient
.
Soft tissue invasion is assessed by diagnosing whether invasion has reached the Lymeformis muscle, gum buccal fold, and chewing space, and assessing agreement between assessors by Kappa statistics
.

Observer-to-observer consistency for bone aggressiveness assessment of CS-3D-T1TFE was almost perfect
.
In 20 cases, image evaluation of two observers was consistent with pathological assessment, showing a high correlation (r>0.
8).

CS-3D-T1TFE also showed higher score-to-peer consistency
than MDCT for all measures of soft tissue invasion.

Figure Bone aggressiveness (BI).

BI-1, which is not osteoinvasive or limited to cortical bone; BI-2, invasion of cancellous bone is observed, but does not extend to the mandibular canal (MC); BI-3, the scope of the violation extends to the MC

This study shows that the reconstructed CS-3D-T1TFE image has important clinical value
for the diagnosis of mandibular cancer.
In assessing bone invasion, the agreement between readers of CS-3D-T1TFE images was higher than that of MDCT and showed a high correlation
with the results of pathological evaluation.
In the assessment of soft tissue invasion, CS-3D-T1TFE showed higher reader-to-reader consistency
than MDCT.

Original source:

Yukiko Kami,Toru Chikui,Osamu Togao,et al.
Usefulness of reconstructed images of Gd-enhanced 3D gradient echo sequences with compressed sensing for mandibular cancer diagnosis: comparison with CT images and histopathological findings.
DOI:10.
1007/s00330-022-09075-w