Objective To determine T-1 and T-2 relaxation times of healthy pancreas parenchyma at 7 T using a multi-transmit system. Materials and methods Twenty-six healthy subjects were scanned with a 7 T MR... Show moreObjective To determine T-1 and T-2 relaxation times of healthy pancreas parenchyma at 7 T using a multi-transmit system. Materials and methods Twenty-six healthy subjects were scanned with a 7 T MR system using eight parallel transceiver antennas, each with two additional receive loops. A Look-Locker sequence was used to obtain images for T-1 determination, while T-2 was obtained from spin-echo images and magnetic resonance spectroscopy measurements with different echo times. T-1 and T-2 times were calculated using a mono-exponential fit of the average magnitude signal from a region of interest in the pancreas and were tested for correlation with age. Results The age range of the included subjects was 21-72 years. Average T-1 and T-2 relaxation times in healthy pancreas were 896 +/- 149 ms, and 26.7 +/- 5.3 ms, respectively. No correlation with age was found. Conclusion T-1 and T-2 relaxation times of the healthy pancreas were reported for 7 T, which can be used for image acquisition optimization. No significant correlations were found between age and T-1 or T-2 relaxation times of the pancreas. Considering their low standard deviation and no observable age dependence, these values may be used as a baseline to study potentially pancreatic tissue affected by disease. Show less
Andersen, M.; Hanson, L.G.; Madsen, K.H.; Wezel, J.; Boer, V.; Velden, T. van der; ... ; Versluis, M.J. 2016
