Automated Whole-Brain Focal Cortical Dysplasia Detection Using MR Fingerprinting With Deep Learning

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) is a common pathology for pharmacoresistant focal epilepsy, yet detection of FCD on clinical MRI is challenging. Magnetic resonance fingerprinting (MRF) is a novel quantitative imaging technique providing fast and reliable tissue property measurements. The aim of this study was to develop an MRF-based deep-learning (DL) framework for whole-brain FCD detection. METHODS: -score maps for each patient were generated by subtracting the mean HC map and dividing by the SD HC map. MRF-based morphometric maps were produced in the same manner as in the morphometric analysis program (MAP), based on MRF GM and WM maps. A no-new U-Net model was trained using various input combinations, with performance evaluated through leave-one-patient-out cross-validation. We compared model performance using various input combinations from clinical MRI and MRF to assess the impact of different input types on model effectiveness. RESULTS: We included 40 patients with FCD (mean age 28.1 years, 47.5% female; 11 with FCD IIa, 14 with IIb, 12 with mMCD, 3 with MOGHE) and 67 HCs. The DL model with optimal performance used all MRF-based inputs, including MRF-synthesized T1w, T1z, and T2z maps; tissue fraction maps; and morphometric maps. The patient-level sensitivity was 80% with an average of 1.7 false positives (FPs) per patient. Sensitivity was consistent across subtypes, lobar locations, and lesional/nonlesional clinical MRI. Models using clinical images showed lower sensitivity and higher FPs. The MRF-DL model also outperformed the established MAP18 pipeline in sensitivity, FPs, and lesion label overlap. DISCUSSION: The MRF-DL framework demonstrated efficacy for whole-brain FCD detection. Multiparametric MRF features from a single scan offer promising inputs for developing a deep-learning tool capable of detecting subtle epileptic lesions.