Artifact characterization of Nitinol needles in magnetic resonance imaging-guided musculoskeletal interventions at 3.0 tesla: a phantom study

Abstract

PURPOSETo characterize the artifacts of an 18-gauge coaxial nickel-titanium needle using a balanced steady-state free precession sequence in magnetic resonance imaging-guided interventions at 3.0 tesla.METHODSThe influence of flip angle (FA), bandwidth, matrix, slice thickness (ST), and read-out direction on needle artifact behavior was investigated for different intervention angles (IA). Artifact diameters were rated at predefined positions. Subgroup differences were assessed using Bonferroni-corrected non-parametric tests and correlations between continuous variables were expressed using the Bravais–Pearson coefficient. Interrater reliability was quantified using intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs), and a contrast-enhanced target lesion to non-enhanced muscle tissue contrast ratio was quantified.RESULTSThe artifact diameters decreased with an increase in FA for all IAs (P 7 mm, and, if possible, an IA of 45°–60°. The visibility of the target lesion and the needle’s artifact behavior must be weighed up against each other when choosing the ST, while higher FAs (40°–60°) and matrices (224 × 224/256 × 256) are associated with low artifacts and sufficient lesion visibility.

Keywords

• artifact
• interventional
• msk
• musculoskeletal
• real-time sequence