Early Achilles Enthesis Involvement in a Murine Model of Spondyloarthropathy: Morphological Imaging with Ultrashort Echo-Time Sequences and Ultrasmall Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide (USPIO) Particle Evaluation in Macrophagic Detection

Table 2

Normalized signal-to-noise ratio (nSNR) (normalized to the subcutaneous fat signal at the same level) of different parts of the rat tendon calculated from the in vivo UTE images.

UTE	Preinsertional area			Enthesis
	Anterior	Posterior	Global	Anterior	Posterior	Global
D0	4.3 ± 0.61	3.77 ± 0.25	3.53 ± 0.25	13.2 ± 1.7^∗	8.27 ± 0.64	12.63 ± 0.55
D3	5.07 ± 1	3.6 ± 0.4	3.63 ± 0.32	25.6 ± 1.22^∗	15.87 ± 0.12	16.47 ± 1.17

Unlike the conventional RARE T2 sequence, the 3D-UTE sequence enables visualization of the enthesis anatomy (^∗) at D0 and D3 () but also early detection of abnormalities in pathological conditions at D6. D: day.