Ultrashort TE (UTE) T1ρ Magic Angle Imaging of the Achilles Tendon

Jiang Du¹, Nikolaus M. Szeverenyi¹, Sheronda Statum¹, Michael Carl², Richard Znamirowski¹, Atsushi Takahashi², Christine Chung¹, Graeme Bydder¹

There are contradictory views on the T1rho relaxation mechanisms in the literatures. In one view proton exchange between chemically shifted NH and OH groups of PG and the tissue water might be an important relaxation mechanism. In another view the dominant T1rho and T2 relaxation mechanism is a dipolar interaction. Collagen fibers in tendons are highly ordered and subject to strong dipole interactions. We proposed to use a UTE-T1rho sequence to measure T1rho of the Achilles tendon at a series of angles and a series of B1rho fields to investigate the contribution of dipole interaction in T1rho relaxation mechanism.