Magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy with special reference to tissue characterization

The presentation focuses on the question whether quantitative MR measurements of T1-and T2 relaxation times may improve the diagnostic specificity of MRI. Furthermore the potential of MR spectroscopy in tissue characterization by MR is considered. The basic conclusion are that quantitative measurements of average T1 and T2 show great biological scatter with great overlap between different pathologies. In special cases an interesting correlation between relaxation rates and therapy effects has been observed. Recent spectroscopy studies are very promising. Thus tissue characterization by MR-relaxation measurements, together with metabolic studies by means of MR-spectroscopy may be clinically useful in the future, especially for non-invasive follow up of treatment