3 t spine matrix coil

Magnetic resonance imaging was performed on a 3.0 Tesla whole-body MR unit (Tim Trio, Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen, Germany) using a dedicated 8-channel spine coil (3 T Spine Matrix Coil, Siemens). All imaging was performed in the supine position, told the patients keep calm breathing, as far as possible to maintain the waist still. Morphological evaluation of IVD with axial T2-weighted images (T2WI). T2∗ mapping axial scanning, fast spin echo (FSE) sequence: repetition time (TR) 575 mses, echo time (TE) 4.2, 11.3, 18.5, 25.6, 32.7 milliseconds, field of view (FOV) 160 × 160 mm, voxel size 0.4 × 0.4 × 4.0 mm, interslice gap 0.3 mm, number of slices 15, examination time 3 minutes 41 seconds. It consists of 5 lumbosacral segments (L1/2∼L5/S1). Each segment is scanned in 3 slices, and the scanning direction is parallel to transverse plane of the IVD.

For MRI image acquisition, a 3.0 Tesla (T) MR scanner (Magnetom Skyra, Siemens Medical Solution) with a gradient strength of 40 mT/m and a dedicated eight-channel spine coil (3 T Spine Matrix Coil, Siemens) was used. To acquire the MRI T2 images, a sagittal, multi-echo and “spine-echo” (SE) protocol was used. We utilised a multi echo-spine sequence for T2 relaxation time measurement (TR: 1400 ms, TE: 11.9, 23.8, 35.7, 47.6, 59.5, 71.4, 83.3, 95.2, 107.1, 119, 130.9, 142.8 ms, FOV: 260 × 260 mm, flip angle: 180°, pixel size: 0.4 × 0.4 mm², slice thickness: 5 mm, receive bandwidth: 200 Hz/pixel, total acquisition time: 6:18 min). The T2 relaxation times were gained from inline reconstruction T2 maps by pixel-wise, mono-exponential, non-negative least squares (NNLS) fit analysis (MapIt, Siemens Medical Solution, Erlangen, Germany). On top of that, a T2 turbo-spin echo (TSE) sequence to acquire high-resolution morphological MRI (TR: 3500.0 ms, TE: 91.0 ms, FOV: 260 × 260 mm, flip angle: 160°, voxel size: 0.4 × 0.4 × 5.0 mm, acquisition time: 3:46 min) was applied. The sequences were all obtained in the sagittal plane.