In vivo ¹H double quantum filtered MRI of the human wrist and ankle

Proton double quantum filtered (DQF) NMR imaging was applied in vivo to the human wrist and ankle with a clinical 1.5 T MR scanner. Water molecules having anisotropic motion were detected from tendons and ligaments. Images of Achilles tendon were obtained for a voxel size of 1.25 x 1.25 x 20 mm with three values of TR = 1.0, 0.5, and 0.2 sec, resulting in total acquisitions time of 17, 8.5, and 3.4 mins, respectively. Some degradation of the signal- to-noise ratio was observed at the shortest TR value and the contrast was significantly reduced due to SQ coherence leakage. The in vivo DQF images showed structure within the tendon that is otherwise not visible by conventional gradient-recalled echo (GRE) methods.