The Emerging Role of 7 Tesla MRI in Musculoskeletal Imaging

Purpose of Review

To describe the emergent role of ultra-high field (UHF) MR with respect to musculoskeletal MRI applications.

Recent Findings

With the recent US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and European Union (EU) approval of ultra-high field (UHF) MRI below 8T for clinical use, and the availability of clinical 7T MRI systems, there is a rising interest in the potential clinical and research applications in musculoskeletal MRI.

Summary

With increases in field strength and SNR gains resulting in sharper and higher spatial resolution MRI images, there is increasing interest in UHF MRI. Although there are challenges and limitations in UHF, there are many new and unique musculoskeletal MR applications that UHF excels at such as morphological imaging, bone micro-architecture evaluation, biochemical imaging techniques such gagCEST, UTE/ZTE, T₂ mapping, T₂* mapping, T1ρ mapping, and multi-nuclear imaging and spectroscopy/imaging techniques with ²³Na and ³¹P. The goal of this review is to highlight some of these recent findings in musculoskeletal MRI applications at UHF.