High-resolution spectroscopic imaging of the human skin.
High-resolution water, fat and chemical shift artefact-free images of different areas of the skin were obtained on a whole-body MR unit (1.5 T) with commercial receiver surface coil with a diameter of 25 mm and high-power gradients (23 mT/m). Sufficient signal-to-noise ratio was achieved by lowering receiver bandwidth to +/-10 kHz or lower and shortening the echo time to 11 (13) ms. Spectroscopic image data sets were acquired with resolution 0.102 x 0.133 mm in plane and slice thickness 0.5 mm. The results demonstrate that it is possible to produce high-quality water and fat micro-images of the skin layers using only a few chemical shift encoding steps in a clinically reasonable time (approximately 2 minutes per slice).
Weis
J
J
Department of Diagnostic Radiology, University Hospital, Uppsala, Sweden. jan.weis@mta.uas.lul.se
Ericsson
A
A
Aström
G
G
Szomolanyi
P
P
Hemmingsson
A
A
D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D000328:Adult; D016477:Artifacts; D020405:Dermis / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005110:Extracellular Space / Q000378:metabolism; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy; D008297:Male; D012867:Skin / Q000033:anatomy & histology*