Markus Weiger1,2,
Marco Stampanoni3,4, Klaas Paul Pruessmann3
1Bruker BioSpin
AG, Faellanden, Switzerland; 2Bruker BioSpin MRI GmbH, Faellanden,
Germany; 3Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University &
ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; 4Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer
Institute, Villigen, Switzerland
Direct depiction of the microstructure of trabecular bone is enabled by MRI with zero echo time (ZTE). The immediate signal acquisition, the maximum encoding speed in the k-space centre, and the high acquisition duty cycle of ZTE enable to achieve the required high resolution, robustness, and SNR efficiency under the rapid T2 relaxation of bone. A comparison with high-quality x-ray images shows an excellent agreement of the two modalities.