Metal Artifact Reduction in Computed Tomography After Deep Brain Stimulation Electrode Placement Using Iterative Reconstructions.
OBJECTIVE
Diagnostic accuracy of intraoperative computed tomography (CT) after deep brain stimulation (DBS) electrode placement is limited due to artifacts induced by the metallic hardware, which can potentially mask intracranial postoperative complications. Different metal artifact reduction (MAR) techniques have been introduced to reduce artifacts from metal hardware in CT. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a novel iterative MAR technique on image quality and diagnostic performance in the follow-up of patients with DBS electrode implementation surgery.


METHODS
Seventeen patients who had received routine intraoperative CT of the head after implantation of DBS electrodes between March 2015 and June 2015 were retrospectively included. Raw data of all patients were reconstructed with standard weighted filtered back projection (WFBP) and additionally with a novel iterative MAR algorithm. We quantified frequencies of density changes to assess quantitative artifact reduction. For evaluation of qualitative image quality, the visibility of numerous cerebral anatomic landmarks and the detectability of intracranial electrodes were scored according to a 4-point scale. Furthermore, artifact strength overall and adjacent to the electrodes was rated.


RESULTS
Our results of quantitative artifact reduction showed that images reconstructed with iterative MAR (iMAR) contained significantly lower metal artifacts (overall low frequency values, 1608.6 ± 545.5; range, 375.5-3417.2) compared with the WFBP (overall low frequency values, 4487.3 ± 875.4; range, 2218.3-5783.5) reconstructed images (P < 0.004). Qualitative image analysis showed a significantly improved image quality for iMAR (overall anatomical landmarks, 2.49 ± 0.15; median, 3; range, 0-3; overall electrode characteristics, 2.35 ± 0.16; median, 2; range, 0-3; artifact characteristics, 2.16 ± 0.08; median, 2.5; range, 0-3) compared with WFBP (overall anatomical landmarks, 1.21 ± 0.64; median, 1; range, 0-3; overall electrode characteristics, 0.74 ± 0.37; median, 1; range, 0-2; artifact characteristics, 0.51 ± 0.15; median, 0.5; range, 0-2; P < 0.002).


CONCLUSIONS
Reconstructions of cranial CT images with the novel iMAR algorithm in patients after DBS implantation allows an efficient reduction of metal artifacts near DBS electrodes compared with WFBP reconstructions. We demonstrated an improvement of quantitative and qualitative image quality of iMAR compared with WFBP in patients with DBS electrodes.
From the *Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Medical Faculty, University of Dusseldorf, Dusseldorf; and †Computed Tomography, Siemens Healthcare GmbH, Forchheim, Germany.
Joel
J
Aissa
Johannes
J
Boos
Christoph
C
Schleich
Martin
M
Sedlmair
Karl
K
Krzymyk
Patric
P
Kröpil
Gerald
G
Antoch
Christoph
C
Thomas
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D016477:Artifacts; D001921:Brain / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery; D046690:Deep Brain Stimulation / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007430:Intraoperative Care / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008670:Metals; D008875:Middle Aged; D011856:Radiographic Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods*
D008670:Metals