Functional imaging of intratissue strain in intervertebral discs (IVD) provides an opportunity to investigate tissue in vivo. For the first time, we utilized displacement under applied load MRI (dualMRI) to document principal strains of healthy cervical IVDs in vivo. The transverse and shear average and maximum strains showed position-dependent responses. Additionally, we compared dualMRI results to conventional T2 and T1ρ MRI metrics. No qualitative trend was observed in the conventional MRI data, highlighting the potentially increased sensitivity of dualMRI. In vivo dualMRI may prove a valuable tool to noninvasively investigate IVD biomechanics through strain characterization, leading to better tissue evaluation.
