Self-Coregistered T1ρ and Sodium MRI of Intervertebral Discs

Chenyang Michael Wang¹, Walter Witschey, Erin McArdle, Mark Elliott², Ari Borthakur², Ravi Reddy²

Intervertebral disc degeneration is a common and sometimes debilitating condition. Current diagnostic technique for intervertebral disc degeneration is not sensitive to the initial phase of degeneration, which involves the breakdown of proteoglycans. T1ρ is a non-invasive MRI technique that has been shown to be sensitive to interaction between macromolecules and bulk water. Sodium MRI has already been shown to be sensitive to proteoglycan change in tissue. In this study, we carried out sodium MRI and T1ρ MRI on ex vivo bovine intervertebral disc, and demonstrated linear correlation between the two measurements.