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British Journal of Radiology (2006) 79, 873-879
© 2006 British Institute of Radiology
doi: 10.1259/bjr/36989440
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The development and optimization of high spatial resolution MRI for imaging the oesophagus using an external surface coil

A M Riddell, BSc, FRCS, FRCR C Richardson, DCRr E Scurr, BSc, DCRr and G Brown, MD, MRCP, FRCR

Department of Radiology, Royal Marsden Hospital, Fulham Road, London SW3 6JJ, UK


Figure 1
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  		Figure 1. The margins of acceptable signal to noise, confined within the white lines. A saturation band is placed over the heart(X) to reduce artefact from cardiac motion. The oesophagus is clearly seen anterior to the vertebral column (white arrows).

 

Figure 2
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  		Figure 2. The main oesophageal wall layers: low signal mucosa (white arrow), surrounded by high signal submucosa (black arrow) and low signal muscularis propria (arrowheads). The descending thoracic aorta (A) and vertebral body (V) are marked.

 

Figure 3
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  		Figure 3. Images at the same level of the oesophagus in one volunteer. The echo time(TE) is reduced from (a) 120 ms to (b) 80 ms. All other parameters are maintained (matrix 256 mmx256 mm, repetition time (TR) 5446 ms, field of view (FOV) 225 mm, number of signal averages (NSA) 6, turbo spin echo (TSE) 16). The signal is increased, improving the conspicuity of the oesophagus (white arrow), the wall of the aorta (arrowhead) and the perioesophageal fat (double arrow heads) with the shorter TE.

 

Figure 4
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  		Figure 4. Images at the same level of the oesophagus in one volunteer. The number of signal averages(NSA) is increased from (a) 4 to (b) 8. All other parameters are maintained (matrix 256 mmx256 mm, repetition time (TR) 5446 ms, field of view (FOV) 225 mm, echo time (TE) 80 ms, turbo spin echo (TSE) 16). The higher NSA improves image quality by improving conspicuity of the oesophageal wall layers: the high signal submucosa (white arrow) and lower signal muscularis propria (arrowhead); the perioesophageal tissues (black arrow) and wall of the aorta.

 

Figure 5
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  		Figure 5. Images taken at the same level of the oesophagus in one volunteer, using the optimized high resolutionT2 weighted sequence (a) without and (b) with cardiac gating. The sequence with cardiac gating provides improved image quality. This is illustrated by the clarity of the oesophageal wall submucosa (black arrow), the aortic wall (white arrow) and right pleural reflection (fine black arrow).

 

Figure 6
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  		Figure 6. Images taken at the same level of the oesophagus in one volunteer. Increasing the repetition time(TR) from (a) 3 beats (effective TR 2250 ms) to (b) 6 beats (effective TR 4000 ms) caused blurring within the image. The oesophageal wall submucosa (black arrowhead), muscularis propria (black arrow), and right pleural reflection (white arrow) are more clearly seen with an effective TR of 2250 ms (3 beats).

 




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