title: UTE imaging in the musculoskeletal system.
abstract: Tissues, such as bone, tendon, and ligaments, contain a high fraction of components with "short" and "ultrashort" transverse relaxation times and therefore have short mean transverse relaxation times. With conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences that employ relatively long echo times (TEs), there is no opportunity to encode the decaying signal of short and ultrashort T2 /T2 * tissues before it has reached zero or near zero. The clinically compatible ultrashort TE (UTE) sequence has been increasingly used to study the musculoskeletal system. This article reviews the UTE sequence as well as various modifications that have been implemented since its introduction. These modifications have been used to improve efficiency or contrast as well as provide quantitative analysis. This article reviews several clinical musculoskeletal applications of UTE.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, California, USA; Department of Radiology, University of California, San Diego Medical Center, San Diego, California, USA.
authors.forename: Eric Y
authors.initials: EY
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Jiang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Christine B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Chung
mesh_terms: D001842:Bone and Bones / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods; D007596:Joints / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013710:Tendons / Q000033:anatomy & histology*
keywords: bicomponent analysis; musculoskeletal tissues; quantitative MRI; ultrashort TE