What are normal relaxation times of tissues at 3 T?
The T1and T2relaxation times are the basic parameters behind magnetic resonance imaging. The accurate knowledge of the T1and T2values of tissues allows to perform quantitative imaging and to develop and optimize magnetic resonance sequences. A vast extent of methods and sequences has been developed to calculate the T1and T2relaxation times of different tissues in diverse centers. Surprisingly, a wide range of values has been reported for similar tissues (e.g. T1of white matter from 699 to 1735ms and T2of fat from 41 to 371ms), and the true values that represent each specific tissue are still unclear, which have deterred their common use in clinical diagnostic imaging. This article presents a comprehensive review of the reported relaxation times in the literature in vivo at 3T for a large span of tissues. It gives a detailed analysis of the different methods and sequences used to calculate the relaxation times, and it explains the reasons of the spread of reported relaxation times values in the literature.
Le2i UMR6306, CNRS, Arts et Métiers, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté. Dijon, France.
Jorge Zavala
JZ
Bojorquez
Le2i UMR6306, CNRS, Arts et Métiers, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté. Dijon, France.
Stéphanie
S
Bricq
Le2i UMR6306, CNRS, Arts et Métiers, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté. Dijon, France.
Clement
C
Acquitter
Le2i UMR6306, CNRS, Arts et Métiers, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté. Dijon, France.
François
F
Brunotte
Le2i UMR6306, CNRS, Arts et Métiers, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté. Dijon, France.
Paul M
PM
Walker
Le2i UMR6306, CNRS, Arts et Métiers, Univ. Bourgogne Franche-Comté. Dijon, France. Electronic address: Alain.Lalande@u-bourgogne.fr.
Alain
A
Lalande
D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D013995:Time
3 tesla; Relaxation times; T(1); T(2)