3D EPI Performance in Detecting Microhemorrhage, Compared to 2D GRE

Motivation: Improve detection sensitivity while maintaining reasonable scan times. Goal(s): Assess how the newly available, 3D Echo Planar Imaging (EPI), performs when compared to 2D GRE in detection of cerebral microhemorrhages (mH). Approach: Conducted on 15 patients with confirmed mHs, and independently reviewed the 2D GRE and 3D EPI images to assess the number and distribution of definite mH and possible mH. Results: 3D EPI sequence allowed the detection of 26 definite and 3 possible mHs, compared to 17 definite and 8 possible mHs identified by the 2D GRE sequence. 3D EPI was comparable to 2D GRE at approximately 1 minute of scan time. Impact: The introduction of 3D EPI as a fast, highly sensitive pulse sequence for detecting microhemorrhages could aid in MRI-based diagnosis in neurodegenerative diseases.