Koji Yamashita1, Takashi Yoshiura1,
Akio Hiwatashi1, Hironori Kamano1, Yukihisa Takayama1,
Eiki Nagao1, Hiroshi Honda1
1Radiology, Kyushu university,
Our
purpose was to assess the feasibility of ultrashort echo-time (uTE) imaging
for visualization of middle ear ossicles in normal subjects. Twelve
volunteers with normal hearing levels were scanned at a 3.0T clinical unit
using a dual-echo uTE sequence at TE1/TE2 = 0.14 ms/1.8 ms. In all subjects,
the middle ear ossicles were clearly visualized as a high signal intensity
spot on short TE images bilaterally,
while they were not visible in long TE images in any of the subjects. To our
knowledge, this is the first report of MR visualization of middle ear
ossicles.