| Fall 2007 | The Canadian Journal of Medical Radiation Technology | Automne 2007 47

INTRODUCTION

MRI technologists from around the world recently participated inthe 16th Annual Meeting for the Section for Magnetic ResonanceTechnologists (SMRT). The meeting took place in Berlin, Germanyfrom May 19 – 20th, in conjunction with The International Societyfor Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) and the EuropeanSociety for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine and Biology (ESM-RMB) Joint Annual Meeting. We are proud to report that severalCAMRT members submitted award-winning efforts, and presentedtheir findings at the meeting in Berlin.

Jay Neadles et al were awarded first place in the category of“Emerging Pulse Sequences in MR Imaging: Proffered Papers” forthe paper, “Functional Liver Evaluation Using Blood-Oxygen LevelDependent (BOLD) Imaging.” In a tie for third place was ToniCormier et al for the paper “Muscle Blood-Oxygen Level Dependent

(BOLD) Imaging: A Potential Tool to Evaluate Chronic CompartmentSyndrome.” Under the category of “SMRT Oral Poster Presentations:Poster Award Winners-Clinical Focus,” Susan Crisp et al were awardedfirst place with the submission, “Magnetic Resonance Imaging ProtocolOptimization for Detection of Endometriotic Lesion.” And lastly,Caron Murray et al took both first and second place in the categoryof “SMRT Oral Poster Presentations: Poster Award Winners-ResearchFocus,” for “Predicting Response to Chemotherapy in Locally AdvancedBreast Cancer by Diffusion Weighted MRI: A Pilot Study” and “SupineBreast MRI Utilizing a Zonal Motion-Adapted Acquisition andReordering Technique” respectively.

The five winning abstracts are reprinted on the subsequent pages.Reprinted with permission from the Section for MagneticResonance Technologists (SMRT) 16th Annual Meeting Syllabus,"MR EDUCATION WITHOUT BORDERS" 19 - 25 May 2007,Berlin, Germany

ABSTRACTS

ABSTRACTS FROM THE SECTION FOR MAGNETIC RESONANCE

TECHNOLOGISTS (SMRT) 16th ANNUAL MEETING

“MR EDUCATION WITHOUT BORDERS”

PROFFERED PAPER - 1ST PLACE RESEARCH FOCUS AWARD

Functional Liver Evaluation Using Blood-Oxygen Level Dependent

(BOLD) Imaging

Jay Neadles, R.T.(R)(MR), Toni Cormier, M.R.T (MR), Zhaoyang Fan, Michael D. Noseworthy,Department of Diagnostic Imaging, St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Hamilton, ON

INTRODUCTION

BOLD (blood oxygen level dependent) contrast is well known as thebasis behind brain fMRI O2 demand changes with activation. Innon-brain tissues changing O2 supply (e.g. by breathing 100% O2)also leads to modulation of BOLD contrast.1 BOLD modulation haspreviously been demonstrated in liver following certain challenges,2

including intake of a standardized meal.3 Therefore, we proposedthe liver may exhibit different hyperoxia-modulated BOLD signalbehaviours when comparing fasted to postprandial states.

METHODS

In a study approved by our local institutional IRB, healthy fastedhuman subjects (n=12) were scanned using a GE Signa HDX 3Tshort-bore MR scanner (GE Healthcare, Milwaukee, WI, USA) and8-channel torso phased array coil and respiratory bellows.Respiratory motion/position was digitized every 4 ms and recordedusing an MRIx data acquisition computer (Thulborn Associates,Chicago, IL, USA). Following localization of the hepatic portalbifurcation, a sagittal multiphase T2*-weighted GRE EPI sequence

was employed (∝=90°, 1 NEX, TE=35ms, TR=1000ms, 24cmFOV, 64x64 matrix, 8mm thick, 1248 phases, 12 discarded acquisi-tions, total time=21minutes) before and 15 minutes following a con-trolled meal (235mL of Ensure Plus, Ross Prod. Div., Abbott Labs,Saint-Laurent, Que., Canada). A sagittal acquisition was chosen tominimize through-plane liver motion and allow free breathing dur-ing the scan.4 To modulate liver BOLD contrast, 100% O2

(15L/min) was cycled with medical air (21% O2) in three cycles dur-ing each BOLD scan. Image post-processing first involved motioncorrection, based on the correlation coefficient template matchingalgorithm,5 followed by respiratory noise reduction through a band-stop digital filter. The motion-compensated BOLD image sets wereanalyzed using a pixel-wise cross-correlation with a sawtooth modelfunction. The calculated correlation coefficient (cc) scaled between -1and 1 (where 0 indicated uncorrelated). Any pixel time-course withcc >0.35 was considered an “activation.”

RESULTS

Two liver ‘types’ were observed: 8 subjects showed clear positive (+Ve)enhancement with hyperoxia cycling (44.62±21.11% significant