Paul A. DiCamillo1,
Sheronda Statum1, Christine B. Chung1, Graeme M. Bydder2,
Nikolaus M. Szeverenyi1
1Department
of Radiology, University of California, San Diego, CA, United States; 2Department
of Radiology, University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA, United
States
Entheses are the regions between tendons or ligaments and bone. They typically have an adaptive structure with uncalcified and calcified fibrocartilage interposed between tensile tendon/ligament, and cortical or subchondral bone. The constituent tissues of entheses all have short T2s and so their detailed structure is not well shown with conventional (longer) TE sequences. In this study we describe our initial experience with MR microscopy of entheses at 11.7T. Possible issues included T2 shortening of already short T2 tissues, and the increased susceptibility affects in bone/soft-tissue interface regions (particular with use of gradient echo and FID based sequences).