Thomas Stewart Denney Jr1,
2, Nouha Salibi3, Ronald J. Beyers1, Paul Gamlin4
1AU
MRI Research Center, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United States; 2Electrical
and Computer Engineering, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, United States; 3Research
Collaborations, Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc, Auburn, AL, United
States; 4Department of Vision Sciences, University of Alabama
Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, United States
Standard tagged cardiac MRI sequences and head coils were used to image ocular tissues at 3T and 7T. Normal volunteers were imaged at both 3T and 7T while undergoing a smooth pursuit eye motion generated by tracking a target that moved back and forth in a sinusoidal fashion on a black background. Images clearly showed the deformation of the extraocular muscles, optic nerve, and vitreous with only minor susceptibility artifacts outside the region of interest. Post-processing techniques for quantitative strain mapping in the extraocular muscles, optic nerve and globe are under development.