J Korean Radiol Soc.  1988 Dec;24(6):942-948. 10.3348/jkrs.1988.24.6.942.

A study on magnetic relaxation times of various organs and body fluids using superconducting magnetic resonanceimaging system

• Chang KH
• Lee GJ
• Han MH
• Kim JH
• Han MC
• Kim CW

• KMID: 2359163
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3348/jkrs.1988.24.6.942

Abstract

This study was undertaken to determine if routine clinical magnetic resonance imaging sequences using only twodifferent repetition times (TRs) and with only two sequential echo times (TEs) can be used to measure reproduciblerelative signal intensity and T2 relaxation time for normal brain tissues and cerebrospinal fluid using a 2.0Tsuperconducting system. In 47 patients 6 different anatomic sites were measured. For each anatomic location, themean and standard deviation of these values were determined. On T1-weighted (SE 500msec/30msec) images, in globuspallidus and thalamus, the standard deviations of relative signal intensity were 6% and 5%, respectively. Therelative signal intensity of the CSF, cortical gray matter and retrobular fat tissue varied more, with a standarddeviation of 11-14% on T1-weighted images. On T2-weighted (SE 3000msec/30mseec and 3000msec/80msec) images, therelative signal intensity of all anatomic regions varied more than on T1-wieghted images. The standard deviationof T2 relaxation times also varied from 10%(fat tissue) to 18%(CSF). These variations might be due to partialvolume averaging, signal alterarion of CSF secondary to CSF pulsatile motion, etc. Knowing that relative signalintensity and T2 relaxation times calculated from routine imaging sequences are reproducible in only limittedareas, these normal ranges can be used ot investigate changes occurring in disease states of the limitted regions.

MeSH Terms

Body Fluids*
Brain
Cerebrospinal Fluid
Gray Matter
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Reference Values
Relaxation*
Thalamus