Two-point Dixon and six-point Dixon magnetic resonance techniques in the detection,quantification and grading of hepatic steatosis

BACKGROUND Hepatic steatosis is a very common problem worldwide.AIM To assess the performance of two-and six-point Dixon magnetic resonance(MR)techniques in the detection,quantification and grading of hepatic steatosis.METHODS A single-center retrospective study was performed in 62 patients with suspected parenchymal liver disease.MR sequences included two-point Dixon,six-point Dixon,MR spectroscopy(MRS)and MR elastography.Fat fraction(FF)estimates on the Dixon techniques were compared to the MRS-proton density FF(PDFF).Statistical tests used included Pearson’s correlation and receiver operating characteristic.RESULTS FF estimates on the Dixon techniques showed excellent correlation(≥0.95)with MRS-PDFF,and excellent accuracy[area under the receiver operating characteristic(AUROC)≥0.95]in:(1)Detecting steatosis;and(2)Grading severe steatosis,(P<0.001).In iron overload,two-point Dixon was not evaluable due to confounding T2*effects.FF estimates on six-point Dixon vs MRS-PDFF showed a moderate correlation(0.82)in iron overload vs an excellent correlation(0.97)without iron overload,(P<0.03).The accuracy of six-point Dixon in grading mild steatosis improved(AUROC:0.59 to 0.99)when iron overload cases were excluded.The excellent correlation(>0.9)between the Dixon techniques vs MRSPDFF did not change in the presence of liver fibrosis(P<0.01).CONCLUSION Dixon techniques performed satisfactorily for the evaluation of hepatic steatosis but with exceptions.

Effect of MR Element Slant Angle on Output Voltage of Magnetoresistive Device

Correlation between optimum of MR element slant angle and the ratio of magnetic pole length to magnetoresistance element length on linear magnetic encoder is explored in this paper.Optimum slant angle of MR element is different and increases in proportion to the ratio of magnetic pole length to MR element length by slant multi-phase filtering model.

Tunability of Band Gaps of Programmable Hard-Magnetic Soft Material Phononic Crystals

In this paper,the elastic wave band gap characteristics of two-dimensional hard-magnetic soft material phononic crystals(HmSM-PnCs)under the applied magnetic field are studied.Firstly,the relevant material parameters of hard-magnetic soft materials(HmSMs)are obtained by the experimental measurement.Then the finite element model of the programmable HmSM-PnCs is established to calculate its band structure under the applied magnetic field.The effects of some factors such as magnetic field,structure thickness,structure porosity,and magnetic anisotropy encoding mode on the band gap are given.The results show that the start and stop frequencies and band gap width can be tunable by changing the magnetic field.The magnetic anisotropy encoding mode has a remarkable effect on the number of band gaps and the critical magnetic field of band gaps.In addition,the effect of geometric size on PnC structure is also discussed.With the increase of the structure thickness,the start and stop frequencies of the band gap increase.