Magnetization transfer imaging of bone marrow with and without fat suppression.
OBJECTIVE
To assess magnetization transfer (MT) ratios of bone marrow at magnetic resonance (MR) imaging performed with and without fat suppression.


METHODS
The authors performed MR imaging in 30 regions of normal bone marrow in 10 subjects by using four types of gradient-echo sequences: a combination of MT and fat-suppression techniques, only the fat-suppression technique, only the MT technique, and without MT or fat-suppression techniques. MT ratios of marrow obtained with and without the fat-suppression technique were quantitatively compared.


RESULTS
The average MT ratio of marrow with fat suppression was significantly higher than that without fat suppression (P < .01).


CONCLUSIONS
Because bone marrow includes both water and fat, the MT ratio of marrow was underestimated when MT imaging was performed without fat suppression. A fat-suppression technique should be used.
Amano
Y
Y
Department of Radiology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.
Kumazaki
T
T
D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results