Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Head and Neck Lesions

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides high tissue contrast resolution. The structure of soft tissues is clearly demonstrated, so MRI is now one of the most advanced topographical imaging methods. In this study, we used the short TI inversion recovery sequence (STIR method), which is called “fat suppression imaging”, to examine 26 patients (19 males and 7 females) 29 to 80 years of age. The resolution of the soft tissue structures was investigated by analyzing only the contrasts of the lesions, which were divided into 4 Grades according to Robert's classification.Excellent contrast was obtained by the STIR method in almost all the patients. Of the 26 patients, 22 has good contrast, i.e. Grade 2 or more. The contrast of thyroid tumor by STIR was almost the same as that by the short SE sequence, but the contrast of parotid and tongue tumors by STIR was better than that by the short SE sequence. The contrast of parotid tumor by STIR was better than that by the long SE sequence, but the contrasts of thyroid, tongue and neck tumors by STIR was almost the same as that by the long SE sequence.The S/N ratio of the imaging quality by STIR sequence was inferior to that of conventional MRI.However, the imaging quality has improved with advances in the equipment in recent years. The STIR method is expected to be a useful pulse sequence in MRI because it provides high resolution of tissue contrasts