Utilizing MR Fingerprinting to Benefit Epilepsy Care: Irene Wang, PhD

WATCH TIME: 3 minutes

"What we do currently with MRI is look at dark or bright. This is similar to feeling a high or low fever. But what we need to do is have that number that could tell us about the state of the brain—the healthy state of the brain, so to speak."

MR fingerprinting is a relatively recent approach to the acquisition and evaluation of MRI data aimed at generating quantitative multiparametric data from a single acquisition. The idea behind MR fingerprinting is that it will make comparison across individuals, scanners, and vendors possible, rather than the current situation in which most imaging data is qualitative. The benefits of MR fingerprinting were further showcased at the recently concluded 2021 American Epilepsy Society (AES) Annual Meeting, December 3-7, in Chicago, Illinois, with research conducted by Irene Wang, PhD.

Wang, the research director and a staff scientist at the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center of Cleveland Clinic, presented 3 abstracts that evaluated MR fingerprinting in the characterization of medically intractable focal epilepsy and focal cortical dysplasia (FCD). FCD, one of the most common pathologies for medically intractable focal epilepsy, can be difficult to detect by using traditional weighted MRI. Using a radiomics extraction approach, the data showed high accuracies of MR fingerprinting to classify FCD from health tissue, and to classify FCD type 2 from type 1.

These projects have been in the works for years, according to Wang. She sat down with NeurologyLive® to discuss the reasoning behind the research, how this novel approach will change the way epilepsy is viewed, and why clinicians should be excited for it.

REFERENCE

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