Maxim Bester1,2, Matilde Inglese1,
Lazar Fleysher1
1Radiology and Neurology, New York
University, New York, NY, United States; 2Eppendorf-Hamburg
University, Hamburg, Germany
The
cervical spinal cord (SC) is a frequent site of pathology in several
neurological diseases. We measured the T1 and T2 relaxation times of the
human SC using a 3-point GRE T1 mapping method with built-in B1-correction
and spin-echo sequence with protocol optimization based on 2-point
measurements of T2s respectively. The T1 relaxation times measured in our
study were lower and the T2 relaxation values were higher than those reported
previously. The latter might be explained by the fact that undesired diffusion
weighting may be introduced by use of the TSE sequence leading to a decrease
in T2 values.