Cranial tissues: appearance at gadolinium-enhanced and nonenhanced MR imaging with magnetization transfer contrast.

PURPOSE To determine the relative contrast of normal cranial tissues at magnetization transfer (MT) spin-echo magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. MATERIALS AND METHODS MR imaging at 1.5 T was performed with conventional spin-echo techniques without and with off-resonance MT saturation pulses. The signal intensities of normal cranial tissues were measured in 10 healthy volunteers on spin-density- and T2-weighted images and in 10 patients on T1- weighted images obtained before and after administration of gadopentetate dimeglumine. RESULTS MT saturation produced a significant (P < .01) reduction in signal from all tissues except cerebrospinal fluid and fat. Several gray matter structures had higher signal intensity than white matter on T1-weighted MT images. After administration of gadopentetate dimeglumine, imaging with the MT sequence increased visualization of normally enhancing structures. CONCLUSION MT saturation pulses produce new patterns of tissue contrast that differ substantially from those seen on conventional spin-echo images.