Mikko Johannes Nissi1,2, Lauri Juhani Lehto3,
Curtis Andrew Corum4, Djaudat Idiyatullin4, Olli Heikki
Grhn5, Miika Tapio Nieminen6,7
1Department of Physics, University of
Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland; 2Department of Clinical Radiology, Kuopio
University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland; 3Department of Biotechnology
and Molecular Medicine, University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland; 4CMRR,
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States; 5Department
of Neurobiology, A.I. Virtanen Institute for molecular Medicine, University
of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland; 6Department of Medical Technology,
University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland; 7Department of Diagnostic
Radiology, Oulu University Hospital , Oulu, Finland
Spins
with sub-millisecond T2
relaxation times are virtually invisible in conventional MRI. Signal from
articular cartilage is typically low due to effective dipolar coupling. In
this study, T1 maps of
articular cartilage were measured using the recently introduced SWIFT method,
which is capable of acquiring signal from virtually all spins, with a T2 sensitivity limit around
few microseconds. The feasibility and performance of SWIFT for T1 measurements was compared
to conventional FSE method. SWIFT had better SNR performance especially in
cartilage layers with short T2.
The T1 values measured
using SWIFT were comparable to those measured with FSE sequence.