• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제10권1호
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• pp.26-31
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• 2006

목적 : 감각 및 운동기능에 대한 기능적 자기공명영상에서 데이터 분석 시 global scaling이 뇌 활성화 영상에 미치는 영향을 알아보고자 하였다. 대상 및 방법 : 신경학적 병력이 없는 정상 성인 피검자 4명을 대상으로 하였다. 운동기능은 오른쪽 상지를 구부렸다가 폈다가를 반복하는 운동을 시행하였고 청각기능은 1 KHz 순음자극을 시행하였다. 기능적 자기공명영상은 3.0T 자기공명영상기기(GE, Milwaukee, USA)에서 BOLD-EPI 기법을 사용하였고 데이터 분석은 SPM2를 사용하였다. 데이터 분석 시 움직임 보정, 통계적 유의 수준 등은 동일하게 한 상태에서 global scaling의 시행 전후의 뇌 활성화 영상을 획득하였다. 결과 : 오른쪽 상지운동에 대한 기능영상에서 global scaling 효과를 고려하지 않은 경우와 고려한 경우의 뇌 활성화 영상의 차이는 크지 않았다 (p<0.000001). 청각기능 검사에서는 global scaling 효과를 고려한 경우에서 고려하지 않은 경우에 비해 뇌 활성화 영상이 훨씬 크게 나타났다 (p<0.05). 결론 : 국소적 BOLD 신호의 변화가 작은 기능영상 검사에서는 데이터 분석 시 global scaling이 뇌 활성화 결과에 큰 영향을 미칠 수 있으므로 주의가 요구된다.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제18권1호
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• pp.70-74
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• 2014

방선균증은 그람 양성 혐기성 균인 악티노미세스과 (Actinomycetaceae)로 인하여 발생하며, 안구 감염의 원인으로서의 방선균증은 드물다고 알려져 있다. 저자들은 60세 남자에게서 발견된 안구 봉와직염을 포함한 경부안면형과 중추신경계형 방선균증의 자기공명영상 소견을 보고하고자 한다. T1 강조 안구 자기공명영상에서 안구를 비롯한 두경부에 다수의 비정상적 조영증강 병변이 보였으며, 일부에서는 농양들으로 생각되는 저 신호강도들을 포함하고 있었다. 병변은 절개 생검을 통하여 방선균증으로 진단되었고, 이후 페니실린계 항생제를 사용하여 완치되었다.

• 한방재활의학과학회지
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• 제19권4호
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• pp.151-163
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• 2009

Objectives : In the assessment of the lumbar spine by magnetic resonance imaging (hereinafter, "MRI"), changes in the paraspinal muscles are overlooked. The purpose of our study is to examine the correlation between the multifidus muscle atrophy on MRI findings and the clinical findings in low back pain (hereinafter, "LBP") patients. Methods : The retrospective study on 38 LBP patients, presenting either with or without associated leg pains, was undertaken. The MRI findings on the patients were visually analysed to find out a lumbar multifidus muscle atrophy, disc herniation, disc degeneration, spinal stenosis and nerve root compressions. The clinical history in each case was obtained from their case notes and pain drawing charts. Results : The lumbar multifidus muscle atrophy has occurred from more than 80% of the patients with LBP. Most of lumbar multifidus muscle atrophies have increased from lower level of lumbar spine. It was bilateral in the majority of the cases. In addition, multifidus muscle atrophy was correlated to the patient's age, disc degenerations and spinal stenosis. On the contrary, gender, the duration of LBP, referred leg pain, disc herniation and nerve root compressions had no relevance to multifidus muscle atrophies. Therefore, when assessing the MRIs of the lumbar spine, we should have more attetion on multifidus muscle, because it has lot's of information about spinal neuropathy problems. Conclusions : Therefore, the examination of multifidus muscle atrophies should be considered when assessing the MRIs of the lumbar spine. In addition, it helps to evaluate and plan the treatment modalities of LBP. Moreover, it prevents from LBP by discovering the importance between the multifidus muscle and the spine stabilization exercise.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제20권4호
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• pp.224-230
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• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the grade of fatty degeneration and atrophy of rotator cuffs on immediate postoperative MRI to those on preoperative MRI in patients with rotator cuff tears. Materials and Methods: Seventy patients were included in this study, who received arthroscopic rotator-cuff repair and underwent both preoperative magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and immediate postoperative MRI in our institution. Fatty degeneration of rotator cuffs and the atrophy of supraspinatus muscles were evaluated with T1 oblique sagittal images in the Y-shaped view. Fatty degeneration was evaluated using a Goutallier classification system, and the atrophy of supraspinatus muscles was evaluated using a modified tangent sign and a visual occupation ratio. Results: From 70 patients, a total of 100 tendons were repaired: 18, 69, and 13 tendons were treated for subscapularis, supraspinatus, and infraspinatus, respectively. The Goutallier grades (P = 0.012), modified tangent signs (P = 0.000), and visual occupation ratios (P = 0.000) of supraspinatus muscles were significantly decreased in immediate postoperative MRIs when compared to preoperative MRIs. In immediate postoperative MRIs, the Goutallier grades of supraspinatus muscles were decreased by one grade in 18.8% (n = 13) of the patients, and the atrophy of supraspinatus muscles was improved by one grade in 26.1% (n = 18) for modified tangent signs and 21.7% (n = 15) for visual occupation ratios. However, fatty infiltration by the Goutallier grades of subscapularis (P = 1.000) and infraspinatus (P = 0.157) muscles were not significantly changed after arthroscopic surgery. Conclusion: Immediate postoperative MRIs showed a significant improvement of fatty degeneration and muscle atrophy in supraspinatus muscles when compared to preoperative MRIs.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제25권3호
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• pp.141-155
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• 2021

Purpose: To develop a 3D magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) method for application in high resolution knee cartilage PD, T₁, T₂ mapping. Materials and Methods: A novel 3D acquisition trajectory with golden-angle rotating radial in k_xy direction and interleaved echo planar imaging (EPI) acquisition in the k_z direction was implemented in the MRF framework. A centric order was applied to the interleaved EPI acquisition to reduce Nyquist ghosting artifact due to field inhomogeneity. For the reconstruction, singular value decomposition (SVD) compression method was used to accelerate reconstruction time and conjugate gradient sensitivity-encoding (CG-SENSE) was performed to overcome low SNR of the high resolution data. Phantom experiments were performed to verify the proposed method. In vivo experiments were performed on 6 healthy volunteers and 2 early osteoarthritis (OA) patients. Results: In the phantom experiments, the T₁ and T₂ values of the proposed method were in good agreement with the spin-echo references. The results from the in vivo scans showed high quality proton density (PD), T₁, T₂ map with EPI echo train length (N_ETL = 4), acceleration factor in through plane (R_z = 5), and number of radial spokes (N_spk = 4). In patients, high T₂ values (50-60 ms) were seen in all transverse, sagittal, and coronal views and the damaged cartilage regions were in agreement with the hyper-intensity regions shown on conventional turbo spin-echo (TSE) images. Conclusion: The proposed 3D MRF method can acquire high resolution (0.5 mm³) quantitative maps in practical scan time (~ 7 min and 10 sec) with full coverage of the knee (FOV: 160 × 160 × 120 mm³).

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제23권3호
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• pp.241-250
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• 2019

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the relation between quantitative magnetic resonance imaging biomarkers, and clinical performances in chronic phase of carbon monoxide intoxication. Materials and Methods: Eighteen magnetic resonance scans and cognitive evaluations were performed, on patients with carbon monoxide intoxication in chronic phase. Apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) ratios of affected versus unaffected centrum semiovale, and corpus callosum were obtained. Signal intensity (SI) ratios between affected centrum semiovale, and normal pons in T2-FLAIR (fluid-attenuated inversion recovery) images were obtained. The Mini-Mental State Exam, and clinical outcome scores were assessed. Correlation coefficients were calculated, between MRI and clinical markers. Patients were further classified into poor-outcome and good-outcome groups based on clinical performance, and imaging parameters were compared. T2-SI ratio of centrum semiovale was compared, with that of 18 sex-matched and age-matched controls. Results: T2-SI ratio of centrum semiovale was significantly higher in the poor-outcome group, than that in the good-outcome group and was strongly inversely correlated, with results from the Mini-Mental State Exam. ADC ratios of centrum semiovale were significantly lower in the poor outcome group than in the good outcome group, and were moderately correlated with the Mini-Mental State Exam score. Conclusion: A higher T2-SI and a lower ratio of ADC values in the centrum semiovale, may indicate presence of more severe white matter injury and clinical impairment. T2-SI ratio and ADC values in the centrum semiovale, are useful quantitative imaging biomarkers for correlation with clinical performance in individuals with carbon monoxide intoxication.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.118-128
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• 2021

Purpose: To investigate the value of MR textural analysis, including use of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) to differentiate malignant from benign soft-tissue tumors on 3T MRI. Materials and Methods: We enrolled 69 patients (25 men, 44 women, ages 18 to 84 years) with pathologically confirmed soft-tissue tumors (29 benign, 40 malignant) who underwent pre-treatment 3T-MRI. We calculated MR texture, including mean, standard deviation (SD), skewness, kurtosis, mean of positive pixels (MPP), and entropy, according to different spatial-scale factors (SSF, 0, 2, 4, 6) on axial T1- and T2-weighted images (T1WI, T2WI), contrast-enhanced T1WI (CE-T1WI), high b-value DWI (800 sec/mm²), and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) map. We used the Mann-Whitney U test, logistic regression, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) for statistical analysis. Results: Malignant soft-tissue tumors had significantly lower mean values of DWI, ADC, T2WI and CE-T1WI, MPP of ADC, and CE-T1WI, but significantly higher kurtosis of DWI, T1WI, and CE-T1WI, and entropy of DWI, ADC, and T2WI than did benign tumors (P < 0.050). In multivariate logistic regression, the mean ADC value (SSF, 6) and kurtosis of CE-T1WI (SSF, 4) were independently associated with malignancy (P ≤ 0.009). A multivariate model of MR features worked well for diagnosis of malignant soft-tissue tumors (AUC, 0.909). Conclusion: Accurate diagnosis could be obtained using MR textural analysis with DWI and CE-T1WI in differentiating benign from malignant soft-tissue tumors.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제26권2호
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• pp.117-124
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• 2022

Purpose: In this study, we provide a way to assess even a slight effect of exercise on trunk-muscle activity. Materials and Methods: Seven healthy male participants (mean age, 24.7 ± 3.2 years; height, 171.2 ± 9.8 cm; and weight, 63.8 ± 11.9 kg) performed 15 sets of an exercise with 20 repetitions of 90° hip and right-knee flexion while lying supine. The exercise intensity was measured using the 10-point Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale after the first and 15th sets of exercises. Although cross-sectional areas and functional T2 mapping using ultrafast imaging (fast-acquired muscle functional magnetic resonance imaging, fast-mfMRI) have been proposed for imaging to evaluate exercise-induced muscle activity in real time, no previous studies have reported on the evaluation of trunk-muscle activity using functional T2 mapping. As a method for assessing trunk-muscle activity, we compared functional T2 mapping using ultrafast imaging (fast-mfMRI) with cross-sectional areas. Results: Although the muscle cross-sectional areas were increased by the exercise, there was no significant difference at rest. On the other hand, for all sets, the changes in T2 were significant compared with those at rest (P < 0.01). These results demonstrate that T2, calculated from fast-mfMRI images can be used to detect even a small amount of muscle activity induced by acute exercise, which was impossible to do with cross-sectional areas. Conclusion: Fast-mfMRI, which can also display functional information with detailed forms, enabled non-invasive real-time imaging for identifying and evaluating the degree of deep trunk-muscle activity induced by exercise.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.32-42
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• 2022

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical benefit of 2D contrast-enhanced T2 fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (CE-T2 FLAIR) image for detecting leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) in the brain metastasis work-up for lung cancer. Materials and Methods: From June 2017 to July 2019, we collected all consecutive patients with lung cancer who underwent brain magnetic resonance image (MRI), including contrast-enhanced 3D fast spin echo T1 black-blood image (CE-T1WI) and CE-T2 FLAIR; we recruited clinico-radiologically suspected LM cases. Two independent readers analyzed the images for LM in three sessions: CE-T1WI, CE-T2 FLAIR, and their combination. Results: We recruited 526 patients with suspected lung cancer who underwent brain MRI; of these, we excluded 77 (insufficient image protocol, unclear pathology, different contrast media, poor image quality). Of the 449 patients, 34 were clinico-radiologically suspected to have LM; among them, 23 were diagnosed with true LM. The calculated detection performance of CE-T1WI, CE-T2 FLAIR, and combined analysis obtained from the 34 suspected LM were highest in the combined analysis (AUC: 0.80, 0.82, and 0.89, respectively). The inter-observer agreement was also the highest in the combined analysis (0.68, 0.72, and 0.86, respectively). In quantitative analyses, CNR of CE-T2 FLAIR was significantly higher than that of CE-T1WI (Wilcoxon signed rank test, P < 0.05). Conclusion: Adding CE-T2 FLAIR might provide better detection for LM in the brain-metastasis screening for lung cancer.

• Investigative Magnetic Resonance Imaging
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• 제5권2호
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• pp.138-148
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• 2001

목적 : 임상적용 가능시간 내에 세계 최초의 3T 능동차폐형 자석을 장착한 전신용 자기공명영상장비를 이용하여 고해상도의 자기공영영상을 획득하였다. 대상 및 방법: 128 MHz의 공명주파수를 갖는 RF코일을 사용하여 정상인으로부터 스핀에코와 고속 스핀에코 펄스 시퀀스를 적용한 두뇌, 무릎, 발 및 손목영상 등을 획득하였다. 전형적인 펄스시퀀스의 매개변수는 $512{\times}512$ matrix, 20 cm FOV, 3 mm 절편두께, 1 NEX를 사용하였다. 특히 T1 강조영상을 위하여 TR=500 ms, TE=10 혹은 17.4 ms을 사용하였으며, T2 강도영상을 위하여 TR=4000 ms, TE=108 ms을 사용하였다. 결과: 3T의 신호대잡음비는 기존 병원에 설치된 1.57에 비하여 2.7배 정도 향상되었다. 3T자기공명영상은 매우 미세한 혈관 구조물을 표출하는데 도움을 주며, 또한 백질과 회질의 상당한 대조도를 제공하여 주었다. 결론: 본 연구결과에서 37로부터 얻은 자기공명영상은 기존 1.57 영상에서 얻은 영상에 비하여 더 높은 해상도와 민감도를 제공하여 주었다 3T 고자장 자기공명영상에 나타난 증가된 신호대잡음비는 생체 조직단위의 영상을 획득하는데 유용하였다. 이러한 고해상도의 자기공명영상은 비침습적인 방법으로서 미세조직의 이상유무를 진단하는데 있어서 향후 더욱 임상에 도움을 주리라 예상한다.