High contrast cartilaginous endplate imaging using a 3D adiabatic inversion-recovery-prepared fat-saturated ultrashort echo time (3D IR-FS-UTE) sequence.

ABSTRACT: Ultrashort echo time (UTE) sequences can image tissues with transverse T ₂ /T ₂ * relaxations too short to be efficiently observed on routine clinical MRI sequences, such as the vertebral body cartilaginous endplate (CEP). Here, we describe a 3D adiabatic inversion-recovery-prepared fat-saturated ultrashort echo time (3D IR-FS-UTE) sequence to highlight the CEP of vertebral bodies in comparison to the intervertebral disc (IVD) and bone marrow fat (BF) at 3 T. The IR-FS-UTE sequence used a 3D UTE sequence combined with an adiabatic IR preparation pulse centered in the middle of the water and fat peaks, while a fat saturation module was used to suppress the signal from fat. A slab-selective half pulse was used for signal excitation, and a 3D center-out cones trajectory

SUBMITTER: Lombardi AF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8944187 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature