Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Musculoskeletal system, Musculoskeletal soft tissue, Soft tissues / Skin, MR, Education, eLearning, Oedema, Inflammation, Infection
Authors:
A. F. Ortiz 1, M. MEJIA2; 1Bogotá DC, Colombia, Ca/CO, 2CALI/CO
DOI:
10.1594/ecr2018/C-2152
Background
The diagnostic images and particularly magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have an important role in the detection and characterization of the different pathologies of the skeletal muscle.
The normal skeletal muscle has an intermediate signal intensity,
wich is slightly higher than water and much lower than fat on T1-weighted images,
and much lower tan both fat and water on T2-weighted images.
Muscle edema is characterized by T2 prolongation due to increased intracellular or extracellular free water,
which can be detected in liquid sensitive sequences such as T2 with fat suppression or STIR (Short tau inversion recovery).
T2 imaging with chemically selective fat suppression has the advantage of higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and specific fat suppression but may also be susceptible to inhomogeneous fat suppression.
STIR sequences has homogeneous fat suppression but relatively low SNR.
T1-weighted images with fat suppression after the administration of intravenous paramagnetic contrast media are useful for the detection of fluid collections,
necrotic areas and masses.
In addition,
depending on the underlying abnormality and its chronicity,
T1-weighted images allow the identification of intramuscular fatty replacement in late stages of different pathologies.