TITLE:
STIR, SPIR and SPAIR techniques in magnetic resonance of the breast: A comparative study
AUTHORS:
M. Margarida Ribeiro, Liliana Rumor, Marta Oliveira, J. Goiry O’Neill, J. Cruz Maurício
KEYWORDS:
Fat Tissue; Magnetic Resonance; Breast MRI; Fat Suppression
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering,
Vol.6 No.3A,
March
29,
2013
ABSTRACT: The
amount of fat is a component that complicates the clinical evaluation and
the differential diagnostic between benign and malign lesions in the breast
MRI examinations. To overcome this problem, an effective erasing of the fat
signal over the images acquisition process,
is essentials. This study aims to compare three fat suppression
techniques (STIR, SPIR, SPAIR) in the MR images of the breast and to evaluate
the best image quality regarding its clinical usefulness. To mimic breast
women, a breast phantom was constructed. First the exterior contour and, in
second time, its content which was selected based on 7 samples with different
components. Finally it was undergone to a MRI breast protocol with the three
different fat saturation techniques. The examinations were performed on a 1.5
T MRI system (Philips?). A group of 5 experts evaluated 9 sequences,
3 of each with fat suppression techniques, in which the frequency offset and TI
(Inversion Time) were the variables changed. This qualitative image analysis
was performed according 4 parameters (saturation uniformity, saturation
efficacy, detail of the anatomical structures and differentiation between the
fibroglandular and adipose tissue), using a five-point Likert scale. The statistics analysis showed that anyone of the fat suppression techniques
demonstrated significant differences compared to the others with (p > 0.05) and regarding each parameter independently. By Fleiss’ kappa coefficient there was a good agreement among observers P(e) = 0.68. When comparing STIR, SPIR and SPAIR techniques it was
confirmed that all of them have advantages in the study of the breast MRI.
For the studied parameters, the results through the Friedman Test showed that
there are similar advantages applying anyone of these techniques.