Virtual Meetings

During the recent EMTP 2024 workshop in Chile, we had several discussion sessions on the latest QSM consensus, as well as how to move from this consensus towards its clinical adoption and our next EMTP study group initiative. Through these discussions and polls among workshop attendees, several important topics and directions have been identified. In this virtual meeting, we aim to disseminate and continue these conversations within the study group, providing an opportunity for members who could not attend the workshop to engage. We will begin with a summary of the workshop and an overview of the discussions on QSM consensus, future goal, and challenges. Following that we will discuss some specific topics identified as critical:

• Clinical values of QSM, DBS as an example (Pascal Spincemaille, Ph.D.)
• Next QSM consensus on clinical applications (Yi Wang, Ph.D.)
• Assessing and Improving QSM Reproducibility (Andreas Deistung, Ph.D.)
• QSM artifacts, normative QSM values & atlases, unmet clinical needs (Karin Shmueli, Ph.D., Patrick Fuchs, Ph.D. & Mattew Cherukara, Ph.D.)
• Forming a working group to assess vendor developments in QSM (Simon Robinson, Ph.D.)
• QSM Harmonization (Berkin Bilgic, Ph.D.)
• Standardized data sharing (Ashley Stewart, Ph.D.)

Additionally, we will provide an update on recent efforts to achieve a EPT consensus. We will also have brief presentations from new study group committee member candidates.

Quantitative imaging has been a research reality for many years and has demonstrated conspicuous successes across many fields of MRI. Through sequence and software development, most systems provide measures of relaxation rates, diffusivities, chemical compositions, flow fields, tissue volumes, tissue structure and microstructure, and many other quantities, all of which have huge potential clinical and research benefits.

Fully realizing these benefits is enormously challenging, however, and quantitative MRI frequently struggles with reproducibility between different scanners and sites. Fully quantitative comparability between different studies and datasets is also sometimes challenging. Standardization in MRI approaches has been the main strategy towards this goal, but it has also been difficult since the complexity of acquisitions and processing can make it hard to achieve consensus or subsequent uptake. These challenges are not unique, however, and fortunately for MRI, the experience of specialists in other medical imaging fields and measurement science can offer a potential way through this maze.

This workshop lays out the current situation and challenges towards the goal of full realization of the benefits of quantitative MR imaging. It will show where we are versus where we’d like to be for full, reliable quantification of MR measurands. Reporting and QA procedures will be discussed, and details on how this has already been achieved in quantitative ultrasound imaging will be provided. A further aim is to discuss approaching consensus on reporting standards for quantitative MRI and to identify QA processes to be recommended for workers in the field to ensure the results are as reliable and reproducible as possible.