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Abstract #3196

Quantifying Proton Density in Cortical Bone In-Vivo by 3D Ultra-Short Echo-Time Imaging

Hamidreza Saligheh Rad1, Shing Chun Benny Lam1, James Love1, Jeremy F. Magland1, Felix W. Wehrli1

1Laboratory for Structural NMR Imaging, Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania Health System, Philadelphia, PA, United States


The impaired strength of osteoporotic cortical bone is largely a consequence of increased porosity, which manifests in increased bone water fraction. Hence, knowledge of bone water (BW) content would provide an indirect measure of pore volume fraction. Surface interactions in the tight spaces of the lacuno-canalicular system shorten the lifetime of the BW proton signal to less than 1msec, therefore requiring solid-state imaging techniques for its capture and detection. In this work, we developed new ultra-short echo-time (UTE) radial imaging acquisition and processing capabilities for precise quantification of BW in cortical bone.