Figure 5.
Normalized theoretical SNR efficiencies for (a) cortical bone and (b) tendon as a function of TR for the three sequences. Short-T2 SNR efficiency is highest for dual-echo UTE (solid line) but generally lower for dual-band UTE (dashed line) and IR-UTE (dashed-dotted line) due to perturbation of the spin system by the magnetization preparation pulses. The imaging parameters used in the in vivo scans are indicated by markers: circle: dual-echo UTE; triangle: dual-band UTE; diamond: IR-UTE.