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Rapid isotropic 3D‐sodium MRI of the knee joint in vivo at 7T
Author(s) -
Wang Ligong,
Wu Yan,
Chang Gregory,
Oesingmann Niels,
Schweitzer Mark E.,
Jerschow Alexej,
Regatte Ravinder R.
Publication year - 2009
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.21881
Subject(s) - magnetic resonance imaging , medicine , osteoarthritis , nuclear medicine , knee cartilage , sodium , gradient echo , knee joint , repeatability , in vivo , scanner , nuclear magnetic resonance , biomedical engineering , articular cartilage , radiology , materials science , chemistry , surgery , pathology , physics , alternative medicine , microbiology and biotechnology , chromatography , biology , optics , metallurgy
Abstract Purpose To demonstrate the feasibility of acquiring high‐resolution, isotropic 3D‐sodium magnetic resonance (MR) images of the whole knee joint in vivo at ultrahigh field strength (7.0T) via a 3D‐radial acquisition with ultrashort echo times and clinically acceptable acquisition times. Materials and Methods Five healthy controls (four males, one female; mean ± standard deviation [SD] age 28.7 ± 4.8 years) and five patients with osteoarthritis (OA) (three males, two females; mean ± SD age 52.4 ± 5.6 years) underwent 23 Na MRI on a 7T, multinuclei equipped whole‐body scanner. A quadrature 23 Na knee coil and a 3D‐gradient echo (GRE) imaging sequence with a radial acquisition were utilized. Cartilage sodium concentration was measured and compared between the healthy controls and OA patients. Results The average signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) for different spatial resolutions (1.2–4 mm) varied from ∼14–120, respectively. The mean sodium concentration of healthy subjects ranged from ∼240 ± 28 mM/L to 280 ± 22 mM/L. However, in OA patients the sodium concentrations were reduced significantly by ∼30%–60%, depending on the degree of cartilage degeneration. Conclusion The preliminary results suggest that sodium imaging at 7T may be a feasible potential alternative for physiologic OA imaging and clinical diagnosis. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2009;30:606–614. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.