Double Inversion Recovery (DIR) MR Imaging to Improve a Contrast in Effusion Regions of the Knee

Geon-Ho Jahng¹, Wook Jin¹, Hyun Cheol Kim¹, Dal Mo Yang¹

To investigate an improved contrast of effusion areas in knees, computer simulations were performed to obtain optimum values of two inversion delay times, TI1 and TI2, to suppress both water fluid and fat signals. After then, we applied the DIR sequence to effusion imaging in human knees. The timing to enhance effusion contrast was found to be TI1=2800msec and TI2=220msec. In this study, we compared the imaging contrast of DIR sequence with and without contrast-enhanced proton-density-weighted and T1-weighted imaging sequences. The DIR sequence may be useful to quantify synovium amounts without using a contrast agent in knee.