In Vivo Magic Angle Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Cell Tracking in Equine Low-Field MRI

Figure 4

Signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) in standard and magic angle images. (a) Boxplots illustrating significantly higher SDFT SNR in magic angle images () compared to standard images () in T1- and T2-weighted sequences and at all time points (). (b) Boxplots displaying the SNR of the artefact ROI, artefact of the whole area, SDFT, and lesion (only in standard images) in T1-weighted sequences over time. The SNR of hypointense artefacts and SDFT in standard images are similar, making it challenging to distinguish hypointense artefacts from healthy tendon tissue. In contrast, in the magic angle images, SDFT SNR was significantly higher than artefact SNR (). Lesion SNR in standard images was significantly higher than artefact SNR as well (). (c) Boxplots illustrating the significantly higher CNR between SDFT and artefact in magic angle images compared to standard images in both T1- and T2-weighted sequences and at all time points (). Circles and rhombs display outlier values; wk: week.

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