Aging Augments the Suppression Ratio, a MRI Biomarker of Cortical Bone Porosity

Yusuf A. Bhagat¹, Cheng Li¹, Shing Chun Benny Lam¹, Alan C. Seifert¹, Mahdieh Bashoor Zadeh¹, Felix W. Wehrli¹

The pore water fraction of cortical bone water is known to increase with age. Here, 3T-based ultra-short echo-time (UTE) MRI of the mid-diaphyseal tibia was used to evaluate the potential of the suppression ratio (SR, unsuppressed to soft-tissue suppressed UTE signal) as a surrogate parameter for porosity in 39 healthy women (24-81 years) and in 13 cortical bone specimens from human donors (27-97 years). SR was strongly associated with age and correlated with micro-CT-derived porosity. SR may serve as an in vivo biomarker of porosity in lieu of more involved methods such as bi-component T2* analysis.