Towards quantitative MRI for the clinic
Physica Medica – European Journal of Medical Physics, will publish in August 2022 a Focus Issue entitled “Towards quantitative MRI for the clinic” focused on methods for standardisation, accuracy, reproducibility and harmonisation in MRI.
Pathological conditions often cause alterations in tissues, whose intrinsic physical parameters can be measured by different Magnetic Resonance (MR) techniques. The presence of such alterations on images has been extensively used as indications of disease; however, to classify alterations as biomarkers of disease, it is necessary to introduce quantitative measurements in the clinical setting placing great emphasis on clinical validation and planning techniques using MRI . The transition from qualitative to quantitative MRI is challenging, and requires several actions to achieve interpretation of the pathological results with high accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value. Accurate definition of sequences, implementation of standardised methods of analysis, verifying reproducibility, knowledge of variability from the scanner and other sources, increases the sensitivity to changes of quantitative measurements associated with the disease. Quantitative assessment should allow normal ranges and variabilities, and provide necessary measures. This approach is crucial in the era of personalised medicine and for multicenter studies.
This Focus Issue aims to share the technical feasibility of different MR methods and techniques, including assessing reproducibility and precision, comparisons among studies, among centres, establishing reference values useful for different clinical and research protocols etc.
The contributions should highlight aspects related to optimisation of data acquisition schemes and data analysis strategies, reproducibility: intra-scanner or inter-site or inter-fields, and quantitative MR measurements, with a methodological approach either on phantoms or in-vivo on humans.
The Focus Issue will be coordinated by a group of EJMP Associate Editors and Guest Editors: Michela Tosetti, Gisela Hagberg, Xavier Golay, Alessandra Retico, Lorenzo Mazzoni, Michael Bock, Alberto Torresin and David Lurie The submissions will be peer-reviewed according to the evaluation rules of EJMP. Deadline for submission: 15 February 2022.