title: T2 relaxation of peripheral nerve measured in vivo.
abstract: It is demonstrated that multi-exponential transverse (T2) relaxation components can be estimated from multi-echo images of peripheral nerve. Three T2-relaxation components with T2 values +/- standard deviations (populations +/- standard deviations) of 19 +/- 7 ms (26 +/- 9%), 63 +/- 31 ms (29 +/- 11%) and 241 +/- 24 ms (45 +/- 7%) have been identified in vivo in the sciatic nerve of the amphibian Xenopus laevis. The longer-lived component, not identified previously in vivo, provides a significant contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) between nerve and muscle in the latter-echo images. It is shown that the CNR can be further improved by the averaging of selected images from the multi-echo set.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Sciences in Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.
authors.forename: M D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Does
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Snyder
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D010525:Peripheral Nerves / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D012584:Sciatic Nerve / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D014982:Xenopus laevis