High Field MR Imaging of the Musculoskeletal System

Technology… is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other.

C.P. Snow[1]

English author and physicist

1905–1980

The growing development and dissemination of 3.0-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technology has brought both opportunities and challenges for musculoskeletal radiologists. Challenges are in the form of image artifacts, safety, and concerns about specific absorption rate, and the occasional headaches that come from pushing new technology and hardware into the world of a busy and demanding clinical practice. Fortunately, many of these initial roadblocks have or are being addressed, and 3.0-T technology is becoming part of routine musculoskeletal imaging. It is now time to focus on those “great gifts” that high magnetic field strength can bring to our understanding of musculoskeletal tissues and diseases.

In this issue of Seminars in Musculoskeletal Radiology, we present a look into current and future applications of high field MRI, both in terms of clinical practice and of novel mechanisms of image contrast that may be exploited in the future for improved diagnosis and clinical research. The list of contributors contains many of the world's leading researchers in high field musculoskeletal MRI. It is hoped that their work may stimulate further interest in musculoskeletal research as the boundaries of MRI move forward.

REFERENCES

1 J.B.Simpson, comp. Simpson's Contemporary Quotations: The Most Notable Quotes since 1950. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin; 1988.