Mri of Musculoskeletal

This book provides an introduction to the role of medical imaging in the diagnosis and management of rheumatologic diseases. It reviews basic radiographic findings of common and rare arthropathies while offering a focused and practical discussion of advanced imaging modalities such as CT, ultrasonography, and MRI.

This book comprehensively covers ultrashort echo time (UTE), zero echo time (ZTE), and other magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) acquisition techniques for imaging of short and ultrashort-T2 tissues. MRI uses a large magnet and radio waves to generate images of tissues in the body. The MRI signal is characterized by two time constants, spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) which describes how fast the longitudinal magnetization recovers to its initial value after tipping to the transverse plane, and spin-spin relaxation time (T2) which describes how fast the transverse magnetization decays. Conventional MRI techniques have been developed to image and quantify tissues with relatively long T2s.

This book is the outcome of a fruitful, long-standing cooperation between expert radiologists and clinicians, and explains the most relevant features and technical requirements that are needed to optimally conduct and assess MR examinations for temporomandibular joint (TMJ) pathologies. TMJ conditions are increasingly gaining attention, as the underlying diseases involved can vary considerably and be difficult to diagnose. Similarly, several imaging sub-specialties (e.g. dental radiology, neuroradiology, and musculoskeletal radiology) now find themselves dealing with the temporomandibular joints.