Preliminary Development of an MRI Atlas for Application to Cleft Care: Findings and Future Recommendations
Jamie L. Perry, Imani R. Gilbert, Fangxu Xing, Riwei Jin, David P. Kuehn, Ryan K. Shosted, Jonghye Woo, Zhi-Pei Liang, Bradley P. Sutton- Otorhinolaryngology
- Oral Surgery
Objective
To introduce a highly innovative imaging method to study the complex velopharyngeal (VP) system and introduce the potential future clinical applications of a VP atlas in cleft care.
Design
Four healthy adults participated in a 20-min dynamic magnetic resonance imaging scan that included a high-resolution T2-weighted turbo-spin-echo 3D structural scan and five custom dynamic speech imaging scans. Subjects repeated a variety of phrases when in the scanner as real-time audio was captured.
Setting
Multisite institution and clinical setting
Participants
Four adult subjects with normal anatomy were recruited for this study.
Main Outcome
Establishment of 4-D atlas constructed from dynamic VP MRI data.
Results
Three-dimensional dynamic magnetic resonance imaging was successfully used to obtain high quality dynamic speech scans in an adult population. Scans were able to be re-sliced in various imaging planes. Subject-specific MR data were then reconstructed and time-aligned to create a velopharyngeal atlas representing the averaged physiological movements across the four subjects.
Conclusions
The current preliminary study examined the feasibility of developing a VP atlas for potential clinical applications in cleft care. Our results indicate excellent potential for the development and use of a VP atlas for assessing VP physiology during speech.