A lack of MRI methods exist that are designed with sensitivity to the lymphatics, even though components of the lymphatic system have been discovered in every major organ system of the body and likely play an understudied role in disease. In this work we performed quantitative relaxation time mapping in axillary lymph node substructures, the cortex and hilum, for the first time at 3 Tesla and used these values to optimize structural imaging parameters for the lymphatics. Knowledge of fundamental MR parameters in the lymphatics is the first step to developing novel imaging sequences that exploit lymphatic tissue in vivo.
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