Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of fingers with a high spatial resolution using a low-field magnetic system.

For our low-field resistive MRI-System we have developed suitable rf-probes to be able to image fingers with a possibly high spatial resolution. To reduce the measurement time and to improve the signal/noiseratio, which is inherently bad in a low field system, we used a multi-echo sequence, accumulating up to six echo signals for each image. For a 256 x 256 pixel matrix we achieved with this technique a spatial resolution of 176 microns/pixel in measuring times between 4 and 5 minutes. In comparison to healthy persons also first MR-images of patients suffering on arthrosis at the fingers and small joint injures were acquired. Using a 512 x 512 pixel matrix and a field of view of 5 cm images with a resolution of 80 microns/pixel were recorded in a total measuring time of less than 10 minutes.