CRANIAL TISSUES - APPEARANCE AT GADOLINIUM-ENHANCED AND NONENHANCED MR-IMAGING WITH MAGNETIZATION-TRANSFER CONTRAST

PURPOSE: To determine the relative contrast of normal cranial tissues at magnetization transfer (MT) spin-echo magnetic resonance (MR) imagi ng. MATERIALS AND METHODS: MR imaging at 1.5 T was performed with conv entional spin-echo techniques without and with off-resonance MT satura tion pulses. The signal intensities of normal cranial tissues were mea sured in 10 healthy volunteers on spin-density- and T2-weighted images and in 10 patients on T1-weighted images obtained before and after ad ministration of gadopentetate dimeglumine. RESULTS: MT saturation prod uced a significant (P < .01) reduction in signal from all tissues exce pt cerebrospinal fluid and fat. Several gray matter structures had hig her signal intensity than white matter on T1-weighted MT images. After administration of gadopentetate dimeglumine, imaging with the MT sequ ence increased visualization of normally enhancing structures. CONCLUS ION: MT saturation pulses produce new patterns of tissue contrast that differ substantially from those seen on conventional spin-echo images .