Jutta
Ellermann1,2, Ute Goerke2, Pierre-Francois Van de
Moortele2
1University of Minnesota Medical
School, Minneapolis, MN, United States; 2Center for Magnetic
Resonance Research, Minneapolis, MN, United States
Recent
advances in orthopedic surgery allow for successful treatment of subtle
developmental, often bilaterally occurring hip joint abnormalities.
Femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) typically causes labral tears and chondral
lesions. Clinical unilateral studies at 1.5 and 3T often use intraarticular
Gadolinium. In this preliminary study, we demonstrate that high resolution,
high contrast/noise images can be obtained at 7 T without contrast
enhancement, both hips being imaged simultaneously despite of transmit B1
distortion at very high field. Key components include the use of a
transceiver RF coil array together with fast, low SAR B1+ shim methods, which
could become standard components in 7T imaging protocols.