Abstract #2503

Chi-Fishman G, Evangelou I

T1 measurements of lingual tissue were made in six healthy volunteers in 3.0T and four excised calf tongues for methodology optimization and comparison in 1.5T and 3.0T. In vivo human lingual T1 values (1306.76218.41) are considerably greater than those of the fresh (809.5228.59) and formalin-preserved (373.9159.27) calf tongues. Human T1 values also have regional specificity (posterior significantly lower than anterior and mid tongue regions, p <0.05). Our parametric maps, generated from nearly perfect curve-fitting, clearly illustrate lingual anatomy. Further parsing into constituent tissue types will permit detailed quantitative characterization and studies of tissue changes due to disease, aging, and exercise.