Application of texture analysis to muscle MRI: 2 – technical recommendations

A goal of the multicenter European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) action MYO-MRI is to optimize Magnetic Resonance Imaging Texture Analysis (MRI-TA) methods for application in the study of muscle disease. This paper deals with recommendations on the optimal methodology to collect the MRI data, to analyse it via texture analysis and to make conclusions from the resultant texture parameter data. A full and detailed description is provided with respect to MR image quality control, sequence choice, image pre-processing, region of interest selection, texture analysis methods and data analysis. A series of conclusions are presented.