Cross-site reproducibility study of brain multifrequency MRE in healthy volunteers

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medRxiv Published April 19, 2026 Medically reviewed April 25, 2026 Study authors: Murk, S.; Laun, F. B.; Rampp, S.; Vossiek, M.; Schattenfroh, J.; Guo, J.; Sack, I.; Dörfler, A.; Fl… DOI ↗ By Dr. Lars van Dijk, PhD · Surgical, Procedural & Diagnostic

Key Takeaway

Consider brain MRE reproducibility metrics from this small healthy volunteer study for research benchmarking, not clinical validation.

This is a prospective cross-site test-retest reproducibility study of brain multifrequency magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) in 16 healthy adult volunteers, conducted across two MRI scanner platforms at two sites with harmonized protocols. The authors assessed the reproducibility of shear wave speed (SWS) and penetration rate (PR) measurements.

Key synthesized findings include region-averaged absolute relative differences (ARD) for SWS ranging from 1.38% to 3.43% across tissues, and for PR ranging from 3.20% to 7.25%. Reproducibility coefficients (RDC) ranged from 0.02 to 0.07 m.s^-1 for SWS and 0.03 to 0.08 m.s^-1 for PR. Coefficients of variation (CV) were 0.82% to 1.93% for SWS and 2.21% to 4.09% for PR. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were 0.66 to 0.84 for SWS and 0.67 to 0.88 for PR. Bland-Altman analysis showed minimal systematic bias and tight limits of agreement.

The authors note that follow-up duration and adverse events were not reported. Limitations include the small sample size and focus on healthy volunteers, with generalizability to other populations not reported. Practice relevance is restrained, as these results provide benchmark reproducibility metrics for future research but do not validate clinical use.

Study Details

EvidenceLevel 5

PublishedApr 2026

View Original Abstract ↓

Background: Brain magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is an emerging quantitative neuroimaging technique that provides noninvasive maps of brain tissue viscoelasticity. For multi-center applications, robust cross-site reproducibility across scanner platforms is essential but remains insufficiently characterized. Purpose: To evaluate cross-site reproducibility of brain multifrequency MRE measurements between two MRI scanner platforms using harmonized protocols. Study Type: Prospective cross-site test-retest reproducibility study. Study Population: Sixteen healthy adult volunteers (7 men, 9 women; mean age 32.2 +/- 8.0 years). Field Strength/Sequence: 3 T systems (Siemens MAGNETOM Cima.X and MAGNETOM Vida at two sites) with identical brain multifrequency MRE sequences, echo-planar imaging (EPI) readout, and standardized driver configuration. Assessment: Each participant underwent one MRE acquisition at each site. Shear wave speed (SWS) and penetration rate (PR) were quantified in whole brain, white matter, subcortical gray matter, and cortical gray matter regions using atlas-based region-of-interest (ROI) analysis in MNI152 space. Statistical Tests: Absolute relative difference (ARD), reproducibility coefficient (RDC), coefficient of variation (CV), intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and Bland-Altman plots were calculated to determine cross-site reproducibility. Results: Cross-site reproducibility was robust for major brain regions, with region-averaged ARD values for SWS ranging from 1.38 % to 3.43 % and for PR from 3.20 % to 7.25 % across tissues. RDCs for SWS ranged from 0.02 m.s^-1 to 0.07 m.s^-1 , and for PR from 0.03 m.s^-1 to 0.08 m.s^-1. Coefficients of variation for SWS ranged from 0.82 % to 1.93 %, and for PR from 2.21 % to 4.09 %. ICC values for SWS ranged from 0.66 to 0.84 and for PR from 0.67 to 0.88. Bland-Altman analysis showed minimal systematic bias and tight limits of agreement. Conclusion: Brain multifrequency MRE demonstrates robust reproducibility across distinct 3 T platforms when using harmonized acquisition and reconstruction. These results support the use of brain MRE as a quantitative biomarker and provide benchmark reproducibility metrics for future research.

Cross-site reproducibility study of brain multifrequency MRE in healthy volunteers

Study Details

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Cross-site reproducibility study of brain multifrequency MRE in healthy volunteers

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