Advantages and Potential of MR Fingerprinting in Epilepsy, Neurology: Irene Wang, PhD

WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

"This is a noninvasive technique. A lot of the lesion characterization work can only be done nowadays after the electrodes have been inserted into the brain for recording or after surgery has been done. Now, we’re going way earlier to probe the brain."

In recent years, the use of MR fingerprinting, a multiparametric quantitative imaging tool, has gained increasing interest due to its widespread advantages among different clinical applications. Most quantitative MRI approaches allow for the measurement of tissue properties but are relatively slow and generally provide only a single property at a time, making them limited in nature. The utility of MR fingerprinting is to simultaneously probe for information on all the desired tissue properties with the goal of improving signal-to-noise ratio and scan efficiency of the entire experiment.

There are several different approaches to using this technique, including a radiomics extraction approach that was taken by Irene Wang, PhD et al., which accurately distinguished healthy tissue from that of patients with focal cortical dysplasia. Wang, the research director and staff scientist at the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center of Cleveland Clinic, noted that there is potential use of MR fingerprinting to characterize lesions, both epileptic and non-epileptic in the brain, which may ultimately improve the precision of care.

In an interview with NeurologyLive®, Wang provided insight on the benefits MR fingerprinting provides for patients with epilepsy and the neurology space in general. She detailed specific uses for the technique, including why it could serve as a basis in longitudinal imaging studies.

REFERENCE

Choi JY, Su T, Hu S, et al. MR Fingerprinting radiomics for characterization of focal cortical dysplasia. Presented at AES Annual Meeting; December 3-7, 2021. Poster 3.235