Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
10712888 | Magnetic Resonance Imaging | 2005 | 5 Pages |
Abstract
The magnetic resonance (MR) properties of the rat spinal cord were characterized at the T9 level with ex vivo experiments performed at 9.4 T. The inherent endogenous contrast parameters, proton density (PD), longitudinal and transverse relaxation times T1 and T2, and magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) were measured separately for the grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM). Analysis of the measurements indicated that these tissues have statistically different proton densities with means PDGM=54.8±2.5% versus PDWM=45.2±2.4%, and different T1 values with means T1GM=2.28±0.23 s versus T1WM=1.97±0.21 s. The corresponding values for T2 were T2GM=31.8±4.9 ms versus T2WM=29.5±4.9 ms, and the difference was insignificant. The difference between MTRGM=31.2±6.1% and MTRWM=33.1±5.9% was also insignificant. These results collectively suggest that PD and T1 are the two most important parameters that determine the observed contrast on spinal cord images acquired at 9.4 T. Therefore, in MR imaging studies of spinal cord at this field strength, these parameters need to be considered not only in optimizing the protocols but also in signal enhancement strategies involving exogenous contrast agents.
Keywords
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Physics and Astronomy
Condensed Matter Physics
Authors
Mehmet Bilgen, Baraa Al-Hafez, Thomas M. Malone, Irina V. Smirnova,