As a clinician, it is important to never underestimate the power of basic science to deliver new answers to old questions. At the outset of the development of magnetic resonance (MR), scientists demonstrated differences in magnetic relaxation between normal and malignant tissues that were of significant interest, although only clinically exploited later through MR spectroscopy. Some 30 years on...

Mapping extraction is useful in medical image analysis. Similarity coefficient mapping (SCM) replaced signal response to time course in tissue similarity mapping with signal response to TE changes in multiecho T2-star weighted magnetic resonance imaging without contrast agent. Since different tissues are with different sensitivities to reference signals, a new algorithm is proposed by adding a ...

PURPOSE To demonstrate the potential benefits of T2 relaxation time of intervertebral discs (IVDs) regarding the detection and grading of degenerative disc disease using 3.0-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in a clinical setting. MATERIALS AND METHODS Cervical sagittal T2-weighted, T2 relaxation MRI was performed at 3.0-T in 61 subjects, covering discs C2-3 to C6-7. All discs were morpholog...

BACKGROUND Improved survival in thalassemic patients has lead to the manifestation of morbidities such as renal dysfunction. This involvement suggests the need for a reliable and non-invasive method to assess the degree of kidney iron overload. We conducted the present study to evaluate the relationship between serum ferritin levels, liver, heart, and kidney MRI gradient echo (T2*) relaxation t...

AIMS To develop and validate a non-invasive method for measuring myocardial iron in order to allow diagnosis and treatment before overt cardiomyopathy and failure develops. METHODS AND RESULTS We have developed a new magnetic resonance T2-star (T2*) technique for the measurement of tissue iron, with validation to chemical estimation of iron in patients undergoing liver biopsy. To assess the c...

Methods We enrolled 11 non-cardiomyopathic and 93 cardiomyopathic patients with following diagnoses: hypertensive or hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (n=22), dilated cardiomyopathy (n=28), sarcoidosis (n=13), old myocardial infarction (n=7), and other form of cardiomyopathy (n=23). Using 3-Teslar cardiac MRI (SignaHDxt, GE medical), T2* signal intensity in the cardiac ventricular septum and hepatic ...

Introduction MR imaging of cartilage is widely accepted as a tool in the evaluation of cartilage. Originally such studies were limited to morphological sequences, but increasingly MR imaging is being used to produce parameter maps (i.e. relaxation or diffusion constants) which allows a biochemical evaluation of the cartilage. One such parameter which has been extensively used is the T2 relaxati...

Pes cavovarus affects the ankle biomechanics and may lead to ankle arthrosis. Quantitative T2 STAR (T2*) magnetic resonance (MR) mapping allows high resolution of thin cartilage layers and quantitative grading of cartilage degeneration. Detection of ankle arthrosis using T2* mapping in cavovarus feet was evaluated. Eleven cavovarus patients with symptomatic ankle arthrosis (13 feet, mean age 55...