This study verified the ability to acquire high resolution sodium and proton MR images of rat tail intervertebral discs in vivo. Utilizing the hardware developed in a previous study, female Fischer 344 rats were imaged in vivo. Resolutions of 78um isotropic and 500um isotropic were achieved for proton and sodium images respectively prior to zerofilling. Comparisons between in vivo and ex vivo images showed similar anatomical and biochemical results. However, slight differences in the sodium images were observed. Sodium concentration was estimated using blood in the ventral tail artery as a reference.
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