Radiology, Vol 150, 447-454, Copyright © 1984 by Radiological Society of North America
Magnetic resonance imaging of the neck. Part I: Normal anatomy
DD Stark, AA Moss, G Gamsu, OH Clark, GA Gooding and WR Webb
Magnetic resonance (MR) images of the neck were obtained in 24 patients
using a specially designed radio-frequency coil, standard and high-
resolution imaging techniques, and a variety of spin echo and inversion
recovery pulse sequences. Cervical vascular structures were more easily
identified with MR than with CT because of the inherent contrast of flowing
blood. The laryngeal skeleton, paralaryngeal tissues, trachea, thyroid,
esophagus, and muscles were identified in all cases by MR using morphologic
criteria comparable with CT criteria. The spatial resolution of
high-resolution MR was slightly inferior to high- resolution CT. However,
streak artifacts due to motion and x-ray beam hardening often limited CT,
but did not affect MR. Anatomic resolution was best using high-resolution
spin echo images obtained with TR = 2.0 seconds and TE = 28 msec because
this imaging technique offered excellent contrast between normal tissues
and had the highest signal-to- noise ratio. With further improvements in
spatial resolution MR is likely to become an important technique for
imaging the neck.
