Impact of radiographer input to Magnetic Resonance Imaging research protocol optimisation in porcine cardiac study
Naeim (Nick) Sanaei1, Dinesh Selvakumar3,4, Tejas Deshmukh3,4, Anthea L.L. Min1, Arthur Escalona1, Dennis Wong1, Viengphet Mouangvong1, Brendan Evans1, Faraz Pathan5,6, James Chong3,4, Sheryl L Foster1,2 1Department of Radiology, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW, Australia2Sydney School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine & Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia3Centre for Heart Research, The Westmead Institute for Medical Research, The University of Sydney, Westmead, NSW, Australia4Department of Cardiology, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, NSW, Australia5Nepean Clinical School of Medicine, Charles Perkins Centre Nepean, University of Sydney, Kingswood, NSW, Australia6Department of Cardiology, Nepean Hospital, Kingswood, NSW, Australia
Abstract
Magnetic Resonance Imaging is increasingly utilised in research studies and many clinical imaging departments allocate staff and resources to support clinician researchers in their institutions. Experienced MRI radiographers are equipped with a raft of highly technical MRI skills, especially in relation to protocol development and sequence optimisation and are the experts in this field. Researchers may bring ‘tried-and-true’ protocols previously used at other sites; however these are often suboptimal for the new study endpoints or are outdated in a quickly-evolving high-tech field.
Our research department undertook a porcine cardiac study to assess potential treatments for myocardial infarction. A free-breathing (FB) protocol inherited from another site/study was initially used. Following radiographer-led data quality discussions with the PI about this study’s endpoint, a sub-study of 38 animals was undertaken comparing two methods of data acquisition, FB versus breath-held (BH). Advantages of FB are the ability to scan without use of a ventilator and its potential effects on cardiovascular physiology. However, FB data is compromised by breathing artifact, reducing data quality and reproducibility. Conversely, although image quality is much improved with the BH technique, an anaesthetist and specialist equipment are required. Our results showed that use of the BH technique resulted in superior data quality together with improvements in reproducibility and both were achievable with shorter imaging times than the FB technique. More importantly, from an animal welfare perspective, we showed that sample sizes can be reduced by up to 86%. This study demonstrates the valuable contribution radiographers make to imaging research teams.
Biography
Nick was employed as a radiographer at Westmead Hospital in 2006 and began MRI training in 2008. Since then, he has specialised in both clinical and research MRI and completed a postgraduate Diploma in Magnetic Resonance Technology from The University of Queensland in 2021. Although spending part of his time in a clinical role teaching new staff, Nick is well-immersed in the Research department where he is Acting Senior when required. The MRI research team collaborates across a range of areas including Neuropsychiatry, Neurology, Cardiology, Renal, Prostate and Breast cancer and utilises current and emergent techniques for data acquisition.