Soft tissue imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) Soft-tissue imaging to evaluate for tendon or ligament tears. 

Ultrasound Superficial soft-tissue imaging to evaluate for tears in tendons or ligaments. Does not penetrate bone, so it is of limited usefulness for assessing tendons or ligaments deep within joints. 

F. Kallel, R. J. Stafford, R. E. Price, R. Righetti, J. Ophir and J. D. Hazle, The feasibility of elastographic visualization of HIFU-induced thermal lesions in soft tissues. Image-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound, Ultrasound Med. Biol., 1999, 25, 641-647. 

Fig. 2. Soft tissue imaging can be accomplished in pre- and postnatal specimens by micro-CT. Top rowdepicts a maximum intensity projection or WIIP view of an El 5 mouse embryo left) and PO mouse pup (right). Bottom rowdepicts a 2D slice view, technically termed a reformat, of the same El 5 (left) and PO (right) from the data set depicted above. The soft tissue features can be seen along with skeletal signal as volumetric or two-dimensional slices of the specimen in all anatomical viewing planes, including oblique angles, if desired.

As far as applications of XDI, the comparison with MRI is illuminating. MRI has from its beginnings found a ready application for soft-tissue imaging in diagnostic radiology, driven by the powerful market forces at work in the health-care sector. 

High Tow-contrast resolution, i.e., good 2D soft-tissue imaging performance. 

Timing is very different. Mechanically, a partial scan with a C-arm takes a minimum 5 s (and up to date 8 s to 20 s for the scans with the potential of soft tissue imaging), but on a CT scarmer it takes 1 to 0.33 s only for a 360° scan. The frame rates on a C-arm system are 30 to 60 frames s, whereas the readout frequency of a CT detector is much higher (several... 

Fig. 40.2 Fusiform acutely ruptured posterior cerebral artery aneurysm before and after parent artery coil occlusion (DSA). Postprocessing of FD-dataset with overlay of 3D-DSA vessel anatomy (displayed in red color) and soft tissue imaging of FD-CT...

Micro-CT scanners have inherent system limitations in their signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) performance due to their small voxel size and relatively low X-ray exposure level, but they can be used effectively to scan the bony structures of a small animal (24-26). In vivo soft tissue imaging is still a challenge, however, because long exposure times cause motion artifacts, which limit... 

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