Impact of different phased-array coils on the quality of prostate magnetic resonance images

Daniel Stocker; Andrei Manoliu; Anton S Becker; Borna K Barth; Daniel Nanz; Markus Klarhöfer; Olivio F Donati

doi:10.1016/j.ejro.2021.100327

Impact of different phased-array coils on the quality of prostate magnetic resonance images

Eur J Radiol Open. 2021 Feb 3:8:100327. doi: 10.1016/j.ejro.2021.100327. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Daniel Stocker¹, Andrei Manoliu^{1

2

3

4}, Anton S Becker¹, Borna K Barth¹, Daniel Nanz^{1

5}, Markus Klarhöfer⁶, Olivio F Donati¹

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, University Hospital Zurich and University of Zurich, Switzerland.
² Max-Planck UCL Centre for Computational Psychiatry and Ageing Research, London, UK.
³ Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL, London, UK.
⁴ Psychiatric University Hospital, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
⁵ Swiss Center for Musculoskeletal Imaging, SCMI, Balgrist Campus AG, Switzerland and Medical Faculty, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
⁶ Siemens Healthcare AG, Zurich, Switzerland.

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate the influence of body phased-array (BPA) receive coil setups on signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and image quality (IQ) in prostate MRI.

Methods: This prospective study evaluated axial T2-weighted images (T2W-TSE) and DWI of the prostate in ten healthy volunteers with 18-channel (18CH), 30-channel and 60-channel (60CH) BPA receive coil setups. SNR and ADC values were assessed in the peripheral and transition zones (TZ). Two radiologists rated IQ features. Differences in qualitative and quantitative image features between BPA receive coil setups were compared. After correction for multiple comparisons, p-values <0.004 for quantitative and p-values <0.017 for qualitative image analysis were considered statistically significant.

Results: Significantly higher SNR was found in T2W-TSE images in the TZ using 60CH BPA compared to 18CH BPA coil setups (15.20 ± 4.22 vs. 7.68 ± 2.37; p = 0.001). There were no significant differences between all other quantitative (T2W-TSE, p = 0.007-0.308; DWI, p = 0.024-0.574) and qualitative image features (T2W-TSE, p = 0.083-1.0; DWI, p = 0.046-1.0).

Conclusion: 60CH BPA receive coil setup showed marginal SNR improvement in T2W-TSE images. Good IQ could be achieved with 18CH BPA coil setups.

Keywords: 18CH, BPA 18-channel body array coil; 30CH, BPA 30-channel body array coil; 60CH, BPA 60-channel body array coil; ANOVA, Analysis of variances; BPA, Body phased-array; ERC, Endorectal coil; ICC, Intra-class correlation coefficient; IQR, Interquartile range; Magnetic resonance imaging; PSTT, Post-hoc paired-sample t-tests; Prostate imaging; ROIs, Region of interests; SD, Standard deviation; SNR, Signal to noise ratio; Signal-to-noise ratio; T2W-TSE, T2-weighted turbo spin echo; mpMRI, Multi-parametric magnetic resonance imaging; ss-DWI-EPI, Single-shot diffusion-weighting spin-echo echo-planar imaging.