Mikko Johannes Nissi1,2, Miika Tapio
Nieminen3,4, Olli Heikki Grhn5, Johanna Nrvinen5
1Department of Physics, University of
Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland; 2Department of Clinical Radiology, Kuopio
University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland; 3Department of Medical
Technology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland; 4Department of
Diagnostic Radiology, Oulu University Hospital , Oulu, Finland; 5Department
of Neurobiology, A.I. Virtanen Institute for molecular Medicine, University
of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland
Exchange
between collagen and bulk water in cartilage has been observed earlier in
Magnetization transfer (MT) experiments.
In the present study, the suitability of a recently introduced MT
method, alternating phase irradiation Z-spectroscopy (ZAPI), in
characterization of MT and T2
distribution in bovine cartilage was investigated. Use of alternating phase
(AP) irradiation in ZAPI provides a unique possibility for T2 filtering by adjusting
the pulse parameters. ZAPI was used for Z-spectroscopy and T2 filtered on-resonance MT
of cartilage samples and the dependence of these parameters as a function of
cartilage depth was analyzed.