Aya Yassin1, Ivan Pedrosa1,
Michael Kearney2,
1Radiology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical
Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; 2Urology,
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA,
United States; 3Pathology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center,
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
Renal
stones have short T2 values and are therefore difficult to demonstrate when
using conventional MR sequences. We utilized the UTE MR sequence to
characterize renal stones in vitro. Thirty-six stones from patients were
scanned, and T1 and T2 values were calculated for every stone. The results
were correlated with the composition. The 21/36 visualized stones showed high
signal on UTE images. Having
demonstrated the feasibility of the UTE sequence for imaging renal stones we
anticipate employing this technique on a wider scale to patients suspected of
having renal stones, especially to those in whom it is desirable to avoid
ionizing radiation exposure such as children, women of child bearing age and
pregnant females.