Impact of acceleration on bone depiction quality by ultrashort echo time magnetic resonance bone imaging sequences in medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw

• Published in: European journal of radiology Open 2022-01, Vol.9, p.100421-100421, Article 100421
• Main Authors: Getzmann, Jonas M., Huber, Florian A., Nakhostin, Dominik, Deininger-Czermak, Eva, Schumann, Paul, Finkenstaedt, Tim, Del Grande, Filippo, Guggenberger, Roman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Magnetic resonance imaging; Medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw; Ultrashort echo time
• ISSN: 2352-0477; 2352-0477
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ejro.2022.100421

To assess the impact on bone depiction quality by decreasing number of radial acquisitions (RA) of a UTE MR bone imaging sequence in MRONJ. UTE MR bone imaging sequences using pointwise encoding time reduction with RA (PETRA) with 60’000, 30’000 and 10’000 RA were acquired in 16 patients with MRONJ and 16 healthy volunteers. Blinded readout sessions were performed by two radiologists. Qualitative analysis compared the detection of osteolytic lesions and productive bony changes in the PETRA sequences of the patients with MRONJ. Quantitative analysis assessed the differences in image artifacts, contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) and image noise. Acquisition times were reduced from 315 to 165 and 65 s (60’000, 30’000, 10’000 RA, respectively), resulting in a fewer number of severe motion artifacts. Bone delineation was increasingly blurred when reducing the number of RA but without any trade-off in terms of diagnostic performance. Interreader agreement for the detection of pathognomonic osteolysis was moderate (κ = 0.538) for 60’000 RA and decreased to fair (κ = 0.227 and κ = 0.390) when comparing 30’000 and 10’000 RA, respectively. Image quality between sequences was comparable regarding CNR, image noise and artifact dimensions without significant differences (all P > 0.05). UTE MR bone imaging sequences with a lower number of RA provide sufficient image quality for detecting osteolytic lesions and productive bony changes in MRONJ subjects at faster acquisition times compared to the respective standard UTE MR bone imaging sequence. •Ultrashort echo time MRI can assess medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw.•Sequences with a lower number of radial acquisitions reduce scan times.•Image quality for detecting bony changes remains sufficient.