High-Resolution 1H/23Na MR Imaging of Knee Articular Cartilage Using Dual-Tuned Knee Coil at 7T

Jung-Hwan Kim¹, Chan Hong Moon¹, Alessandro Furlan¹, Bumwoo Park¹, Tiejun Zhao², Kyongtae Ty Bae¹

We acquired high-resolution proton and sodium images at 7T using dual-tuned 1H/23Na coil and 3D ultra-short-echo spiral trajectory sequence and quantitatively analyzed the distribution of sodium signals at different compartments of the knee cartilage. The images demonstrated excellent SNR and resolution of proton and sodium in vivo that allowed us to perform quantitative analysis of the cartilage morphology as well as characterization of cartilage quality.