The Application of Fat-Suppression MR Pulse Sequence in the Diagnosis of Bone-Joint Disease

Abstract

Fat-suppression technology of magnetic resonance is very important in clinical practice. This article is written to interpret the principle, advantages/disadvantages and clinical applications of some regular fat-suppression sequences in the diagnosis of Bone-Joint Disease, including: 1) frequency-selective saturation (FS); 2) short-TI inversion recovery (STIR); 3) frequency selective inversion pulse; 4) fat suppression water or fat selective excitation technique; 5) Dixon technology and 6) magnetization transfer contrast (MTI).

Improved visualization of the lumbar spine nerve roots in dogs using water excitation (ProSet) as opposed to short tau inversion recovery: A retrospective study of two fat suppression MRI sequences

“…Water excitation techniques use a series of small radiofrequency pulses, with specific interpulse delay (composite pulses) in order to enhance the chemical shift effect of fat and water . The sequence scheme using composite pulses can be variable and can be a pair (1:1), a triplet (1:2:1), or a quadruplet (1:3:3:1) .…”

“…The latter method was developed in the 1990s and relies on the ability to simultaneously select a spatial (slice) and spectral (water or fat) band. In choosing a water excitation spectral pulse band technique, only water generates a signal that contributes to image formation and fat is effectively suppressed …”

A Potential Diagnostic Pitfall in the Differentiation of Hemorrhagic and Fatty Lesions Using Short Inversion Time Inversion Recovery: a Case Report

“…The selection of fat-suppression techniques depends on the purpose of the study, the amount of fat in the tissue, and the magnetic field strength. Frequency-selective fat saturation and STIR are most commonly used in clinical spine imaging (7,8).…”

“…Large fields of view and off-center imaging can result in failed fat saturation. Another limitation of fat saturation is that it is unsuitable for lowfield strength magnets (2,8).…”

“…The principal disadvantage is that this technique does not only suppress fat; the signal from tissue with a short T1 relaxation time can also be suppressed. Other disadvantages are a relatively long scanning time and low signal-to-noise ratio (2,8).…”