Achieva 3.0 t x series

Structural and functional imaging was performed on a whole-body 3.0 Tesla scanner (Philips Achieva 3.0 T X-Series, Philips, The Netherlands) with a 32-channel SENSE head coil. High resolution structural brain images, using an isotropic T1-weighted TFE sequence (TR 8.2 ms, TE 3.7 ms, field of view 240 mm, slice thickness 1 mm, 220 transversal slices with a voxel size of 1 × 1 × 1 mm³), were acquired for each participant. For the functional analysis, blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) contrast images were acquired with a dynamic T2^*-weighted EPI-sequence (TR 3200 ms, TE 35 ms, flip angle 90°, field of view 224 mm, slice thickness 3 mm, 45 transaxial slices parallel to the anterior commissure-posterior commissure (AC-PC) plane with a voxel size of 2 × 2 × 3 mm³).
The task was presented to participants via fMRI-ready LCD-goggles (VisuaStim Digital, Resonance Technology Inc., Northridge, CA, USA) connected to a laptop that supported a specific software programmed in Matlab. Responses were reported via an fMRI-ready keyboard (Lumitouch response pad, Photon Control Inc., Canada).

Functional and structural brain scans were acquired using a whole-body 3 T scanner (Philips Achieva 3.0 T X-Series, Philips, The Netherlands) with a 32-channel SENSE head coil. Blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) contrast images were obtained with a dynamic T2* weighted gradient echo echoplanar imaging (EPI) sequence using SENSE (TR 3,200 ms, TE 35 ms, flip angle 90°, field of view 224 mm, slice thickness 3.0 mm, and voxel size 2.0 mm × 2.0 mm × 3.0 mm). We acquired 45 transaxial slices parallel to the anterior commissure—posterior commissure (AC-PC) line, which covered the whole brain. High resolution structural brain scans of each participant were acquired using an isotropic T1 turbo-field echo (TFE) sequence (field of view 240 mm, slice thickness 1.0 mm, voxel size 1 mm × 1 mm × 1 mm) with 220 transversally oriented slices covering the whole brain. The task was presented to the participants via fMRI-ready liquid-crystal display (LCD) goggles (Visuastim Digital, Resonance Technology Inc., Northridge, CA, United States) connected to a laptop which ran specific software programmed in Matlab. Responses were given by means of an fMRI-ready keyboard (Lumitouch response pad, Photon Control Inc., Canada).

Functional and structural brain scans were acquired using a whole-body 3 T scanner (Philips Achieva 3.0 T X-Series, Philips, The Netherlands) with a 32-channel SENSE head coil. Blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) contrast images were obtained with a dynamic T2* weighted gradient echo EPI sequence using SENSE (TR 3200 ms, TE 35 ms, flip angle 90°, field of view 224 mm, slice thickness 3.0 mm, voxel size 2.0 × 2.0 × 3.0 mm). We acquired 45 transaxial slices parallel to the anterior commissure — posterior commissure (AC-PC) line which covered the whole brain. High resolution structural brain scans of each participant were acquired using an isotropic T1 TFE sequence (field of view 240 mm, slice thickness 1.0 mm, voxel size 1x1x1 mm) with 220 transversally oriented slices covering the whole brain. The task was presented to the participants via fMRI-ready LCD-goggles (Visuastim Digital, Resonance Technology Inc., Northridge, CA, USA) connected to a laptop which ran specific software programmed in Matlab. Responses were given by means of an fMRI-ready keyboard (Lumitouch response pad, Photon Control Inc., Canada).

Imaging was performed on a 3 Tesla Scanner (Philips Achieva 3.0 T X-series) using a Philips SENSE head coil eight Elements. For each participant 535 functional scans were acquired in 42 sagittal slices of 3.75 mm thickness without interslice gap covering the whole brain using a fast-field-echo gradient EPI sequence, a repetition time (TR) of 4000 ms, echotime of 30 ms, a flip angle (FA) of 90° and a 240 mm field of view (FOV). The in-plane resolution was 3.75 × 3.75 mm. The structural T1-weighted MP-RAGE images were taken with a 3D FFE sequence (180 slices, TR 1000 ms, TE 4.6 ms, FA 8°, FOV 256 mm, resolution 1 × 1 × 1 mm).

MRI brain scans were acquired using a 3.0‐T MRI scanner (Philips Real‐Time Compact Magnet 3.0‐T MRI system, Achieva 3.0‐T X‐series; Philips Healthcare, Best, The Netherlands), equipped with a 16‐channel SENSE head coil. T1‐weighted images, including sagittal and axial T1 turbo field echo sequences, were obtained with the following parameters: TR = 8.3 ms, TE = 4.6 ms, field‐of‐view (FoV) = 224 mm × 224 mm, spatial resolution = 0.6 mm × 0.6 mm × 1 mm, and slice thickness = 1 mm. T2‐weighted images were obtained to exclude white matter abnormalities. The turbo spin echo T2 scan imaging parameters were as follows: TR = 3000 ms, TE = 100 ms, FoV = 180 mm × 180 mm, spatial resolution = 0.5 mm × 0.5 mm × 4 mm, and slice thickness = 4.0 mm. Radiological evaluation was performed by an experienced pediatric neuroradiologist who was blinded to all other data. DTI was performed using a single‐shot spin‐echo planar sequence with a SENSE factor of 2 and echo planar imaging factor of 51 (TR = 8192 ms, TE = 76 ms, FoV = 224 mm × 224 mm, spatial resolution = 2 mm × 2 mm × 2 mm, and slice thickness = 2.0 mm). The slice orientation was axial and parallel to the anterior–posterior commissure line. Seventy‐four axial sections covered the entire hemisphere and brainstem. The diffusivities were measured along 15 directions using an electrostatic gradient model (b = 800).

Pretreatment and recurrent MR images were obtained with a 3.0 T MRI unit (Achieva 3.0T X-series, Philips Healthcare, Best, Netherlands) according to a standard clinical acquisition protocol: SPAIR T2W MRI (repetition time [TR], 3,000 ms; echo time [TE], 100 ms; flip angel, 90 degrees; matrix size, 212 × 141; slice thickness 4 mm, in-plane resolution 0.65 mm × 0.65 mm). SPAIR is a kind of fat-suppression techniques which is desirable to remove the fat contribution from MR imaging signal to better visualize pathology or contrast enhanced (15 (link)). Tie et al. (16 (link)) reported that the addition of fat suppression techniques to T2W MR sequences improves the detection and delineation of head and neck lesions.