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Abstract

The major advantage of high-field and ultra-high field MR is the shift from morphological to biochemical and metabolic imaging techniques which normally suffer from low sensitivity at standard field strength (1.5 T). The high signal-to-noise ratio of the higher field systems provides biochemical and metabolic imaging in reasonable scan times, which promotes their widespread clinical application. This development enables the diagnosis of diseases such as osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease, and muscle disease at their earliest stages, before morphological changes occur. Thus, the imaging pre-requisites are available for the evaluation and follow-up of new disease-modifying drugs and the trend toward more personalized medicine.