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Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine - CALL FOR PAPERS

Special Issue on "Quantitative Body Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Quantitative MRI – how to make it work in the body?"

While MRI in the routine clinical setting relies on the qualitative assessment of contrast-weighted images, there is a surge of activity in the MR community to develop quantitative imaging tools for tissue characterisation. Quantitative MRI (qMRI) has shown potential beyond traditional diagnostics in monitoring disease progression and therapeutic response, for its use towards precision medicine. However, qMRI typically requires the encoding of additional parameters, and has been traditionally challenged by prolonged acquisition times, inadequate repeatability and reproducibility, dependence on imaging platform, and confounding effects which bias results. qMRI in the abdomen and the pelvis has therefore faced critical challenges over the past two decades.

Recent hardware and software developments in MRI have accelerated the interest in developing methods for body quantitative imaging and overcoming the associated technical challenges. High and low field systems have increased the sensitivity of qMRI or decreased the effect of confounders in qMRI parameter extraction. Novel sensing, acquisition and reconstruction methods are on the horizon to minimise the effect of motion on body qMRI enabling the significant shortening of protocols. Validation studies are ongoing to assess the accuracy and reproducibility of body qMRI biomarkers in-vitro and in multi-centre and multi-vendor settings. New biophysical signal models have been proposed to reduce the effect of confounders on body qMRI. These and other developments make qMRI of the body a rapidly growing research field with a wide range of impactful clinical applications.

We invite submissions of original research on solutions for tackling the methodological challenges in the acquisition, reconstruction, and analysis of qMRI data in the abdomen and the pelvis. Contributions on qMRI methodology (e.g. relaxometry, diffusion MRI, perfusion MRI, MR elastography, fat quantification) for liver, pancreas, kidney, gut/colon and prostate imaging are of particular interest, including the following:

·  Acquisition and reconstruction methods for body qMRI

·  Methods for motion correction and compensation in body qMRI

·  Methods for accelerated multi-parametric body qMRI

·  Machine learning and deep learning methods for body qMRI   

·  Development and validation of phantoms for body qMRI parameters

·  Techniques leveraging low/high fields to improve body qMRI sensitivity/reproducibility

·  Signal models for analysing qMRI data and improving accuracy/reproducibility of body qMRI

·  Standardisation and harmonisation of body qMRI protocols across scanner platforms 

·  Open-source hardware and software for body qMRI


We invite manuscripts on topics pertinent to the scope of the Special Issue. In order to meet the timeline, papers should be submitted not later than December 1st, 2023 (and preferably sooner) using the normal submission procedures on the web (https://www.editorialmanager.com/mrmp/default1.aspx (this opens in a new tab)). Authors should indicate in their cover letter that the manuscript is submitted "For inclusion in the Special Issue on Quantitative Body MRI”.


Octavia Bane, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Durgesh Dwivedi, PhD, King George’s Medical University (Early Career Researcher)

Susan Francis, PhD, The University of Nottingham

Dimitrios Karampinos, PhD, Technical University of Munich

Holden Wu, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles

Takeshi Yokoo, MD, PhD, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

David G Norris, Editor-in-Chief, MAGMA

Guest Editors of the Special Issue


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