T 1ρmagnetic resonance: basic physics principles and applications in knee and intervertebral disc imaging

Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery

Jing Yuan⁴  Qinwei Zhang²  Xiaojuan Li¹  Yì-Xiáng J. Wáng³  Weitian Chen³  Anil Ahuja³ 

[1] Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, University of California, San Francisco, USA;Department of Radiology, Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands;Department of Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Faculty of Medicine, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, New Territories, Hong Kong SAR, China;;Medical Physics and Research Department, Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital, Happy Valley, Hong Kong SAR, China

关键词: T1ρ;    musculoskeletal system;    quantitative;    biomarker;    osteoarthritis (OA);    cartilage;    intervertebral disc;    degeneration;   

DOI  :  10.3978/j.issn.2223-4292.2015.12.06

学科分类：外科医学

来源: AME Publications

【 摘 要 】

T_1ρ relaxation time provides a new contrast mechanism that differs from T₁- and T₂-weighted contrast, and is useful to study low-frequency motional processes and chemical exchange in biological tissues. T_1ρ imaging can be performed in the forms of T_1ρ-weighted image, T_1ρ mapping and T_1ρ dispersion. T_1ρ imaging, particularly at low spin-lock frequency, is sensitive to B₀ and B₁ inhomogeneity. Various composite spin-lock pulses have been proposed to alleviate the influence of field inhomogeneity so as to reduce the banding-like spin-lock artifacts. T_1ρ imaging could be specific absorption rate (SAR) intensive and time consuming. Efforts to address these issues and speed-up data acquisition are being explored to facilitate wider clinical applications. This paper reviews the T_1ρ imaging’s basic physic principles, as well as its application for cartilage imaging and intervertebral disc imaging. Compared to more established T₂ relaxation time, it has been shown that T_1ρ provides more sensitive detection of proteoglycan (PG) loss at early stages of cartilage degeneration. T_1ρ has also been shown to provide more sensitive evaluation of annulus fibrosis (AF) degeneration of the discs.

【 授权许可】

Unknown