Hank C. W. Donker1, Nils A. Krmer2,
Jens Otto3, Ioana Slabu4, Martin Baumann4,
Uwe Klinge3, Christiane K. Kuhl2
1Department of Diagnostic
Radiology , RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, NRW, Germany; 2Department
of Diagnostic Radiology, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, NRW, Germany; 3Department
of Chirurgy, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, NRW, Germany; 4Helmholtz
Institute for Applied Medical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen,
NRW, Germany
Surgical textile mesh implants for abdominal hernia repair are hard to delineate in MRI. To improve MR-visualization, superparamagnetic iron oxides (SPIO) were implanted in the mesh polymer base material. SPIO generate magnetic susceptibility gradients. To discriminate SPIO induced voids from proton-free structures positive contrast susceptibility imaging was developed. Here 4 ways to generate positive contrast from susceptibility gradients were compared: IRON, FLAPS, white-marker imaging and SGM. The acquisition of a gradient echo image with a calculated Short Term Fourier Transform Susceptibility Gradient Map image is to be preferred for positive contrast imaging of SPIO loaded hernia meshes.