<i>In vivo</i> MR microscopy of the human skin

Song, Hee Kwon; Wehrli, Félix W.; Ma, Jingfei

doi:10.1002/mrm.1910370207

Cited by 88 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 17 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…It could be the reason for the lower MT activity in the reticular dermis and high MR signal intensity of the papillary dermis. Our results corroborate with earlier reports on in vivo skin features by high-resolution MRI [9,11,31].…”

Section: Magnetization Transfer Contrastsupporting

confidence: 93%

Microimaging of hairless rat skin by magnetic resonance at 900 MHz

Sharma

2009

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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Purpose: Quantitative imaging of the rat skin was performed using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 900 MHz. Materials and methods: A number of imaging techniques utilized for multiple contrast included magnetization transfer contrast, spin-lattice relaxation constant (T1-weighting), combination of T2-weighting with magnetic field inhomogeneity (T2*-weighting), magnetization transfer weighting and diffusion tensor weighting. These were used to obtain 2D slices and 3D multislice-multiecho images with high magnetic resonance contrast. These 2D and 3D imaging techniques were combined to achieve high-resolution MRI. Results: Oil-water phantom showed distinct fat-water contrast. The dermis and epidermis, including the stratum corneum remnants, of nude rat skin were distinct due to their proton magnetic resonance as a result of proton interactions with the skin interstitial tissue. Combined details obtained from high-resolution, high-quality ex vivo skin images with different multicontrast characteristics generated better differentiation of skin layers, sublayers and significant correlation (r 2 =0.4927 for MRI area, r 2 =0.3068 for histology area; Pb.0148) of MR data with co-registered histological areas of the epidermis as well as the hair follicle. Conclusion: The multiple contrast approach provided a noninvasive ex vivo MRI visualization with semi-quantitative assessment of the major skin structures including the stratum corneum remnants, epidermis, hair, papillary dermis, reticular dermis and hypodermis.

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Section: Magnetization Transfer Contrastsupporting

confidence: 93%

Microimaging of hairless rat skin by magnetic resonance at 900 MHz

Sharma

2009

Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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“…The same authors also measured these parameters in ageing skin, showing that only proton density in the outer dermis tended to increase, in good agreement with the known decrease in macromolecular content of older peoples' skin (12). By using much shorter echo times (TE), Song et al (5) could fit the signal decay to a biexponential curve showing 91% of the dermis proton signal to have a T 2 value less than 10 ms, corresponding to water molecules closely associated with macromolecules, whereas the remaining signal with a T 2 of 42.7 ms was interpreted as belonging to water less tightly bound to collagen. The same authors proposed an acquisition sequence based on variable TE in order to shorten the echo time, thereby enhancing protons of the fast-decaying components (13).…”

Section: Physical Parametersmentioning

confidence: 56%

Advances in MR imaging of the skin

2006

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MR imaging of the skin is challenging because of the small size of the structures to be visualized. By increasing the gradient amplitude and/or duration, skin layers can be visualized with a voxel size of the order of 20 mm, clearly the smallest obtained for in vivo images in a whole-body imager. Currently, the gradient strength of most commercial systems enables acquisition of such a small voxel size, and the main difficulty has thus become to achieve sufficient detection sensitivity. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can be increased either by increasing the magnetic field strength or by minimizing noise with small coils; cooling copper coils or superconducting coils can enhance the SNR by a factor of 3 or more. MR imaging, because of the large number of parameters it is able to measure, can provide more than the microscopic architecture of the skin: physical parameters such as relaxation times, magnetization transfer or diffusion, and chemical parameters such as the water and fat contents or phosphorus metabolism. In spite of the amount of information they have provided to date, MR imaging and spectroscopy have had limited clinical applications, mainly because cutaneous pathologies are easily accessible to the naked eye and surgery. However, MR technologies indeed represent powerful research tools to study normal and diseased skin.

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“…The root mean square (rms) noise voltage also depends on ω o . At high frequencies (usually above 0.5 T [8], except for very small RF coils [9]), the noise voltage is sample dominated and is proportional to ω o , hence resulting in SNR that scales linearly with ω o . Conversely, at lower frequencies, the noise is often circuit-dominated (coil and associated electronics) and thus scales as ω o 1/4 , resulting in SNR that is proportional to ω o 7/4 .…”

Section: Signal-to-noise Ratiomentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Resolution Black-Blood MRI of the Carotid Vessel Wall Using Phased-Array Coils at 1.5 and 3 Tesla1

et al. 2005

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Purpose-To investigate the magnetic field dependence of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for carotid vessel wall magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using phased-array (PA) surface coils by comparing images obtained at 1.5 T and 3 T, and to determine to what extent the improved SNR at the higher field can be traded for improved spatial resolution.Materials and methods-Two pairs of dual-element PA coils were constructed for operation at the two field strengths. The individual elements of each PA were matched to 50 Ω impedance on the neck and tuned at the respective frequencies. The coils were evaluated on a cylindrical phantom positioned with its axis parallel to the main field, and with the coils placed on either side of the phantom parallel to the sagittal plane. In-vivo MR images of the carotid arteries were obtained in five subjects at both field strengths with a fast spin-echo double-inversion black-blood pulse sequence with fat saturation. SNR was measured at both field strengths using standard techniques.Results-At a depth corresponding to the average location of the carotid arteries in the study subjects, mean phantom SNR for the two coils was higher at 3 T by a factor of 2.5. The greater than linear increase is due to only partial coil loading of these relatively small coils. The practically achievable average SNR gain in vivo was 2.1. The lower in vivo SNR gain is attributed to a reduction in T 2 and prolongation of T 1 at the higher field strength and, to a lesser extent, the requirement for reduced refocusing pulse flip angle to operate within specific absorption ratio limits. The superior SNR at 3 T appears to provide considerably improved vessel wall delineation.Conclusions-Carotid artery vessel wall MRI using phased-array surface coils provides a considerable increase in SNR when field strength is raised from 1.5 T to 3 T. This increase can be traded for enhanced in-plane resolution.

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In vivo MR microscopy of the human skin

Cited by 88 publications

References 17 publications

Microimaging of hairless rat skin by magnetic resonance at 900 MHz

Microimaging of hairless rat skin by magnetic resonance at 900 MHz

Advances in MR imaging of the skin

High-Resolution Black-Blood MRI of the Carotid Vessel Wall Using Phased-Array Coils at 1.5 and 3 Tesla1

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