Table 1.

Morphologic UTE MRI for evaluation of human musculoskeletal tissues

Organ or tissue	Technique (Scan parameters)	Findings	Ref.
Knee	3D UTE-weighted subtraction (TR = 6 ms, TE = 0.07 and 3.8 ms)	Determined weighting factors optimized for cartilage, tendon, bone, meniscus	[35]
Mandibular condyle	3D UTE (TR = 50 ms, UTE = 0.05 ms, FOV = 4 cm, matrix = 384 × 384 × 384)	Condylar fibrocartilage imaged with high signal intensity, allowing determination of 3D contour	[78]
Disco-vertebral junction	2D UTE subtraction (TR = 300 ms, TE = 0.008 and 6.6 ms)	Identified uncalcified and calcified cartilaginous endplates as sources of high linear signal intensity	[74••]
Lumbar spine	3D UTE (TR = 4.8 ms, TE = 0.14 ms)	Found association between the presence of CEP defects and disc degeneration	[77]
Tibial cortical bone	3D UTE: subtraction (TR = 20 ms, TE = 0.06 and 4.6 ms), dual-band saturation (TR = 240 ms), inversion recovery (TR = 300 ms, TI = 100 ms)	Subtraction and saturation techniques provided good short T2 SNR and CNR. Inversion recovery had the lowest SNR but uniform short T2 contrast	[79]
Knee	2D UTE Spiral subtraction (Cor, TR = 100 ms, TE = 0.36 ms, 10 ms)	In healthy subjects, deep layer of articular cartilage was visualized	[80]
Meniscus	3D UTE subtraction (TR = 35 ms, TE = 0.056, 5.1 ms)	Meniscal calcifications detected with high signal intensity	[61]
Knee	3D AWSOS UTE (TR = 80 ms, TE = 0.6–0.8 ms, in-plane voxel = 0.14 mm)	Feasibility of high resolution UTE imaging using AWSOS sequence	[81]
Lower leg, knee, Achilles tendon, forearm	3D UTE subtraction, rescaled subtraction, long T2 water and fat saturation, single inversion recovery, double inversion recovery	Feasibility shown for in vitro and in vivo imaging of osteochondral junction, aponeuroses, meniscus, tendon, ligament and cortical bone	[25]
Tooth	3D SWIFT (TR = 2.5 ms, TE = 0.006 ms)	Hard and soft tissues of teeth were simultaneously imaged	[82]
Wrist (cortical bone)	WASPI	WASPI technique allows imaging of solid bone matrix and tendons, with suppression of soft tissues	[83]
Achilles tendon and cortical bone	2D UTE OSC and subtraction (TR = 200–300 ms, TE = 0.008 ms)	UTE-OSC technique suppresses long T2 water and fat effectively, creating high contrast for short T2 tissues	[84]
Foot, ankle, knee	3D UTE subtraction (TR = 7.7 ms, TE = 0.05 ms, 2.3 ms at 3T), 3D UTE magnetization preparation (long T2 and fat suppression)	Both techniques well suited for long T2 suppression	[32]
Tibial cortical bone and ankle	2D UTE with inversion recovery pulse (TR = 300 ms, TE = 80 µs)	T2 suppression allows good visualization of bone and tendon	[38]
Achilles	2D UTE subtraction (TR = 500 ms; TE = 0.08, 6.0, 11.1, 17.7 ms)	UTE MRI shows pathological changes and not seen inconventional MRI	[63]
Spine	2D UTE subtraction (TR = 500 ms, TE = 0.08, 6.0, 11.1, 17.7 ms)	UTE sequence shows hyper-intense band near cartilaginous endplates	[85]
Meniscus	2D UTE subtraction (TR = 500 ms, TE = 0.08, 6.0, 11.1, 17.7 ms), with and without contrast administration	Increase in SI of red zone and perimeniscal tissue after contrast injection, especially at shorter TEs	[86]

2D Two dimensional, 3D three dimensional, UTE ultrashort time to echo, IR inversion recovery, DIR dual inversion recovery, TR time to repeat, TE time to echo, TI time to invert, FOV field of view, SNR signal-to-noise ratio, CNR contrast-to-noise ratio, CEP cartilaginous endplate, AWSOS acquisition weighted stack of spirals, SWIFT sweep imaging with Fourier transformation, WASPI water- and fat-suppressed proton projection MRI