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In vivo magnetic resonance imaging of the human cervical spinal cord at 3 Tesla
Author(s) -
Korzan Jeffrey R.,
Gorassini Monica,
Emery Derek,
Taher Zaki A.,
Beaulieu Christian
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.10137
Subject(s) - magnetic resonance imaging , spinal cord , medicine , in vivo , nuclear magnetic resonance , radiology , nuclear medicine , biology , physics , psychiatry , microbiology and biotechnology
Purpose To demonstrate the feasibility of obtaining high‐quality magnetic resonance (MR) images of the human cervical spinal cord in vivo at a magnetic field strength of 3 T and to optimize the signal contrast between gray matter, white matter, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) on 2D gradient recalled echo (GRE) images of the cervical spinal cord. Materials and Methods Using a custom‐built, anatomically molded radio frequency (RF) surface coil, the repetition time and flip angle of a 2D GRE sequence were systematically varied in five volunteers to assess tissue contrast in the cervical spinal cord. Results The 2D GRE parameters for an optimal balance between gray‐white matter and CSF‐white matter contrast at 3 T were determined to be a time‐to‐repetition (TR) of 2000 msec and a flip angle of 45°, with the constant short time‐to‐echo (TE) of 12 msec used in this study. Excellent tissue contrast and visualization of the internal anatomy of the spinal cord was demonstrated reproducibly in eight subjects using these optimal parameters. Conclusion This study demonstrates that imaging the cervical spinal cord and delineating internal spinal cord structures such as gray and white matter is feasible at 3 T. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2002;16:21–27. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.