7-T clinical MRI of the shoulder in patients with suspected lesions of the rotator cuff

European Radiology Experimental

Table 1 Sequence parameters of the 7-T shoulder MRI protocol.

Weighting/type	Orientation	Type of sequence	Fat suppression	In-plane resolution (mm²)	Slice thickness (mm)	Number of slices	Distance factor (%)	Acquisition time (min)	TR (ms)	TE (ms)	FOV (mm²)
Standard sequences
PD	Axial	Turbo spin-echo	Fat-sat	0.43 × 0.43	2.5	30	30	4:05	4,350	30	180 × 180
PD*	Coronal	Turbo spin-echo	Fat-sat	0.43 × 0.43	2.5	23	30	4:05	4,350	30	180 × 180
T1	Sagittal	Gradient-echo	None	0.45 × 0.35	2.0	40	20	5:24	172	4.1	180 × 180
Additional sequences
PD	Sagittal	Turbo spin-echo	None	0.40 × 0.40	2.5	30	20	3:38	4,500	35	200 × 200
PD	Coronal	Turbo spin-echo	None	0.40 × 0.40	2.5	30	20	3:15	4,500	35	200 × 200
STIR	Coronal	Turbo spin-echo	Inversion time 300 ms	0.70 × 0.70	3.0	20	20	2:03	4,500	31	180 × 180
MEDIC	Coronal	Multi-echo spoiled gradient-echo	None	0.35 × 0.35	1.5	39	50	5:21	1,000	15	180 × 180
DESS 3D	Coronal	Steady-state free precession	Water excitation	0.70 × 0.70	0.7	128	0	4:56	8	2.4	190 × 190
T1	Coronal	Gradient-echo	None	0.45 × 0.35	2.0	40	20	5:24	172	4.1	180 × 180
T1	Coronal	Turbo spin-echo	None	0.40 × 0.40	2.5	9	20	1:43	900	11	200 × 200

3D Three-dimensional, DESS Dual-echo steady state, Fat-sat Fat saturated, FOV Field of view, MEDIC Multi-echo data image combination, PD Proton density, STIR Short-tau inversion recovery, TE Echo time, TR Repetition time. Except for T1-weighted TSE/GRE, all sequences used parallel imaging technique 2
*According to guidelines, a double echo (PD- and T2-weighted) sequence should be used. However, as T2-imaging with adequate signal-to-noise ratio remains challenging at ultra-high fields, we decided to forego the second echo