Abstract #1709

Jones C, Magland J, Techawiboonwong A, Wehrli F

Bone - bone marrow susceptibility differences cause local perturbations of the magnetic field in the marrow spaces of cancellous bone and thus enhanced R2 (line broadening). A rapid and accurate method for measuring R2 would be useful for assessing cancellous bone density and architecture. Here, we show that by mapping the evolution of the signal before and after a phase-reversal RF pulse with the GESFIDE sequence, spectra can be generated as Fourier transforms of the descending and ascending portion of the signal. From the resulting linewidths R2 can be computed. Cancellous bone volume fraction was measured from high-resolution anatomic images was highly correlated with R2 obtained in this manner.