Alterations of the Temporomandibular Joint on Magnetic Resonance Imaging according to Growth and Development in Schoolchildren
Figure 1
Differences in TMJ between normal adults (a, b) and schoolchildren (c, d) on MRI. (a) DCLS on the top of the mandibular condyles was undetectable (arrows) on fast spin-echo intermediate-weighted images of a healthy 34-year-old female. The voided signal line at the top of the right mandibular condyle was seen as a successive continuity. The imaging parameters used in the MR sequences included 1050 ms TR, 15 ms effective echo time, flip angle of 90°, a 15 × 15 cm field of view, a matrix of 160 × 288 pixels, 17 mm slab thickness, and 3 mm section thickness. (b) High-intensity stripes on the top of the mandibular condyles were undetectable (arrows) on fast spin-echo T2-weighted images of the same subject as Figure 1(a). The imaging parameters used in the MR sequences included 3500 ms TR, 108 ms effective echo time, flip angle of 90°, a 15 × 15 cm field of view, a matrix of 160 × 288 pixels, 17 mm slab thickness, and 3 mm section thickness. (c) DCLS on the top of the mandibular condyles (arrows) appeared as high-intensity stripes over a low-intensity area on fast spin-echo intermediate-weighted images of a healthy 8-year-old boy. The voided signal line at the top of the right mandibular condyle was not seen. The imaging parameters used in the MR sequences included 1050 ms TR, 15 ms effective echo time, flip angle of 90°, a 15 × 15 cm field of view, a matrix of 160 × 288 pixels, 17 mm slab thickness, and 3 mm section thickness. (d) High-intensity stripes (arrows) were found to coincide with DCLS on the top of the mandibular condyles; this was found using fast spin-echo T2-weighted images of the same subject as Figure 1(c). The imaging parameters used in the MR sequences included 3500 ms TR, 108 ms effective echo time, flip angle of 90°, a 15 × 15 cm field of view, a matrix of 160 × 288 pixels, 17 mm slab thickness, and 3 mm section thickness.
