AI-enabled MRI boosts speed and quality at Kumamoto Chuo Hospital

Impressed by AI-enabled improvements

For Kumamoto Chuo Hospital, Japan, using SmartSpeed technology was their first experience with AI-enabled MRI acquisition. “Before that, we had been using Compressed SENSE, which was a first significant step forward in speed and quality compared to SENSE that we used before,” says Dr. Kazuhiro Katahira, Radiologist at Kumamoto Chuo Hospital. He notes that after the considerable image quality improvement with Compressed SENSE, adopting AI-enabled SmartSpeed has taken fast, high-quality imaging to the next level.

“I like using SmartSpeed because our image quality has considerably improved and the time required for imaging has shortened, making it a very useful technology,” he says. “In my experience, diagnosis has clearly become easier since we started using SmartSpeed. In many instances we have been able to quickly find answers to cases that we had been struggling with in the past.”

At 6 months, SmartSpeed demonstrates outstanding versatility

Kumamoto Chuo Hospital performs 7000 to 8000 MRI examinations annually. These include a large number of body imaging exams, including approximately 1200 prostate exams, 700 to 800 whole body diffusion exams, as well as liver, bile and fluid exams, and in special cases imaging of the chest area. The hospital uses two Philips MRI machines, a 3.0T Elition and a 1.5T Ingenia.

When SmartSpeed was first employed, it was clear that its AI aspect would be particularly useful. Dr. Katahira explains that it improves the SNR (signal-to-noise ratio) basically by denoising, to create beautiful images. He has identified many advantages. “When higher SNR is not needed, the improved quality can be traded for other benefits, such as shortening the scan time, increasing spatial resolution, sharpening the image quality and many other applications, making it clinically very useful,” he says.

After six months of use, “SmartSpeed is incorporated into all of our examinations. Its clinical advantages are very difficult to sum up in a few words,” according to Dr. Katahira, so he highlights some specific examples: “It helps us in the diagnosis of breast cancer by showing great detail, allowing us to observe development in the breast duct. And in the diagnosis of rectal cancer, it helps us see the invasion of the cancer and the surrounding area in greater detail.”

Faster lumbar spine exams are beneficial for patients with pain

Many patients who must undergo a lumbar spine examination suffer from back pain. For these patients it is difficult to maintain the imaging position long enough to successfully complete the examination. “In such cases, using SmartSpeed allows us to perform volume imaging, so that we acquire only one high resolution 3D sequence in a short time and then reconstruct the other orientations from that,” Dr. Katahira says.

“This is highly advantageous because the patient needs only endure a short exam time, whereas before it was necessary to acquire a larger number of sequences in total. We have seen that the shorter time has allowed us to scan patients who previously could not finish the exam. This is a great advantage.”

Images of the upper abdomen can easily get blurred due to the patient’s breathing. Before SmartSpeed a viable alternative method was lacking. “We like to use single shot T2-weighted images but in the past these would look like heavy T2-weighted images, which is why we added halfscan, but this often introduced blurring,” says Dr. Katahira. “So there was a limit to what could be done. Now, with SmartSpeed, the reduction factor can be increased, so halfscan can be turned off, and sharp images can be obtained. A single-shot T2-weighted image can be taken in about 10 seconds. Because of their high resistance to movement, acquiring multiple of these images can be a substitute, even if there is some patient motion. So, thanks to SmartSpeed, we can now obtain sharp single shot images without halfscan, making single shot a good alternative to multishot.”

Rapid clarity for stroke and liver

For patients with acute cerebral infarction, who cannot endure long examinations, some clear benefits of SmartSpeed emerge. “We have a fast MR scan protocol that quickly completes the scanning. It allows us to acquire all the images we need in about 3 to 5 minutes,” says Dr. Katahira. “And it is often possible to acquire more images at that level, which is an advantage because the exam is complete even if the patient moves in the middle of the exam.”

Also in dynamic MRI of the liver Dr. Katahira sees important improvements. While previously his scan used 9 seconds for a 5 mm slice, SmartSpeed now allows him to achieve a thin slice volume scan (1.6 x 2.1 x 2mm) with double arterial phase using acceleration factor 8. He indicates this is very useful for the radiologist when diagnosing, especially because it can provide a high temporal resolution.