Proton magnetic resonance microimaging of human trabecular bone

Proton magnetic resonance ( 1 H magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)) images of human trabecular bone were acquired and discussed for two samples with different porosity. Three-dimensional 3D Spin Echo (3D SE) and Multi-Slice Multi-Echo (MSME) pulse sequences were examined. A very high slice resolution of (38 μm) 2 was achieved (MSME). The intensity histograms were found useful for the characterization of the bone porosity. A spatial distribution of the spin–spin relaxation time T 2 was monitored with the MSME pulse program. The work demonstrates the great potential of the proton MRI technique in the study of the trabecular bone morphology.