Measurement of T1 and T2 relaxation times of the pancreas at 7 T using a multi-transmit system

Abstract

Objective: To determine T1 and T2 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 T1 determination, while T2 was obtained from spin-echo images and magnetic resonance spectroscopy measurements with different echo times. T1 and T2 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 T1 and T2 relaxation times in healthy pancreas were 896 ± 149 ms, and 26.7 ± 5.3 ms, respectively. No correlation with age was found. Conclusion: T1 and T2 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 T1 or T2 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.