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Repeatability and reproducibility of rapid T1 mapping of brain tissues at 64 mT : A multicentre study

Lena, Beatrice ; Padormo, Francesco ; Teixeira, Rui Pedro A.G. ; Bennallick, Carly ; Gholam, James ; van den Broek, Ruben ; Lafayette, Samson Lecurieux ; Vavasour, Irene ; Cercignani, Mara and Jones, Derek K. , et al. (2025) In Imaging Neuroscience 3.
Abstract

Very-low-field MRI (<100 mT) holds promise for Point-of-Care brain imaging applications, including stroke and multiple sclerosis, with T1 mapping emerging as a key biomarker for brain development and pathology. However, current low-field T1 mapping protocols suffer from long acquisition times and limited multi-site repeatability. This study aimed to improve T1 mapping at 64 mT using a clinically feasible 10-minute protocol and assess repeatability and reproducibility across sites. We present an analysis of the repeatability and reproducibility of rapid T1 measurements in a commercially available phantom and in 60 volunteers, scanned with a portable 64 mT MRI systems at six sites.... (More)

Very-low-field MRI (<100 mT) holds promise for Point-of-Care brain imaging applications, including stroke and multiple sclerosis, with T1 mapping emerging as a key biomarker for brain development and pathology. However, current low-field T1 mapping protocols suffer from long acquisition times and limited multi-site repeatability. This study aimed to improve T1 mapping at 64 mT using a clinically feasible 10-minute protocol and assess repeatability and reproducibility across sites. We present an analysis of the repeatability and reproducibility of rapid T1 measurements in a commercially available phantom and in 60 volunteers, scanned with a portable 64 mT MRI systems at six sites. T1 mapping was performed using an undersampled 3D inversion-recovery turbo spin-echo sequence with a 10.8-minute scan time, and reconstructed with a locally low-rank approach. Our results in phantom demonstrated high reproducibility in T1 measurements (below 3% differences from the average), with non-significant differences between sites. Longitudinal measurements demonstrated high repeatability over time both in vivo and in phantom settings in one site, with minimal variability (average Coefficient of Variation of 0.6%). Average in vivo T1 values for white matter and cortex were 290 ± 6 ms and 332 ± 8 ms, respectively and the values demonstrated high reproducibility, with differences of less than 4% from the average across sites. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of multi-site in vivo T1 mapping at 64 mT, providing normative T1 values at this field strength and supporting its use as a quantitative biomarker in clinical applications.

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publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
low-field MRI, multicenter, quantitative MRI, repeatability, reproducibility, T1 mapping
in
Imaging Neuroscience
volume
3
article number
IMAG.a.916
publisher
MIT Press
external identifiers
  • scopus:105019103485
  • pmid:41079764
ISSN
2837-6056
DOI
10.1162/IMAG.a.916
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
e243c077-1f6b-4b7e-bf6e-e67f459e86fd
date added to LUP
2025-12-19 10:01:06
date last changed
2025-12-20 03:40:28
@article{e243c077-1f6b-4b7e-bf6e-e67f459e86fd,
  abstract     = {{<p>Very-low-field MRI (&lt;100 mT) holds promise for Point-of-Care brain imaging applications, including stroke and multiple sclerosis, with T<sub>1</sub> mapping emerging as a key biomarker for brain development and pathology. However, current low-field T<sub>1</sub> mapping protocols suffer from long acquisition times and limited multi-site repeatability. This study aimed to improve T<sub>1</sub> mapping at 64 mT using a clinically feasible 10-minute protocol and assess repeatability and reproducibility across sites. We present an analysis of the repeatability and reproducibility of rapid T<sub>1</sub> measurements in a commercially available phantom and in 60 volunteers, scanned with a portable 64 mT MRI systems at six sites. T<sub>1</sub> mapping was performed using an undersampled 3D inversion-recovery turbo spin-echo sequence with a 10.8-minute scan time, and reconstructed with a locally low-rank approach. Our results in phantom demonstrated high reproducibility in T<sub>1</sub> measurements (below 3% differences from the average), with non-significant differences between sites. Longitudinal measurements demonstrated high repeatability over time both in vivo and in phantom settings in one site, with minimal variability (average Coefficient of Variation of 0.6%). Average in vivo T<sub>1</sub> values for white matter and cortex were 290 ± 6 ms and 332 ± 8 ms, respectively and the values demonstrated high reproducibility, with differences of less than 4% from the average across sites. Our results demonstrate the feasibility of multi-site in vivo T<sub>1</sub> mapping at 64 mT, providing normative T<sub>1</sub> values at this field strength and supporting its use as a quantitative biomarker in clinical applications.</p>}},
  author       = {{Lena, Beatrice and Padormo, Francesco and Teixeira, Rui Pedro A.G. and Bennallick, Carly and Gholam, James and van den Broek, Ruben and Lafayette, Samson Lecurieux and Vavasour, Irene and Cercignani, Mara and Jones, Derek K. and Kolind, Shannon and Hajnal, Jo and Bourke, Niall and Dong, Yiming and Hollander, William J. and Karaulanov, Todor and Deoni, Sean C.L. and Williams, Steven C.R. and Sundgren, Pia C. and Webb, Andrew G. and Ljungberg, Emil}},
  issn         = {{2837-6056}},
  keywords     = {{low-field MRI; multicenter; quantitative MRI; repeatability; reproducibility; T1 mapping}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{MIT Press}},
  series       = {{Imaging Neuroscience}},
  title        = {{Repeatability and reproducibility of rapid T<sub>1</sub> mapping of brain tissues at 64 mT : A multicentre study}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/IMAG.a.916}},
  doi          = {{10.1162/IMAG.a.916}},
  volume       = {{3}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}