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Abstract #3998

Sodium In Vivo Measurement of T1 and T2* Relaxation Times of Articular Cartilage at 7 Tesla

Stefan Zbyn1, Vladimir Juras1,2, Wolfgang Bogner1, Pavol Szomolanyi1,2, Goetz H. Welsch1, Michal Bittsansky1, Vladimir Mlynarik3, Ewald Moser1, Siegfried Trattnig1

1MR Centre of Excellence, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; 2Institute of Measurement Science, Department of Imaging Methods, Bratislava, Slovakia; 3Laboratory for Functional and Metabolic Imaging (LIFMET), Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland


In this study we employed the standard spoiled gradient echo sequence (GRE) to investigate sodium T1 and slow component of T2* (T2S*) relaxation times at 7 Tesla in vivo. We demonstrated the feasibility of sodium relaxation times measurements using GRE sequence and reported sodium T1 and T2S* times in good agreement with previously published values. Since the standard deviation of relaxation times of cartilage and homogenous phantoms are comparable, we believe that the range of observed relaxation times of cartilage is also small. Therefore we can expect that this method will be useful in detecting early stages of osteoarthritis.