Suszeptibilitätsgewichtete

Suszeptibilitätsgewichtete is a term primarily used in the field of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It refers to a specific type of MRI sequence that is highly sensitive to differences in magnetic susceptibility within tissues. Magnetic susceptibility is a measure of how much a material becomes magnetized in the presence of an external magnetic field. Different tissues and substances have varying magnetic susceptibilities.

In MRI, susceptibility effects can lead to distortions in the magnetic field. Suszeptibilitätsgewichtete imaging techniques exploit these distortions to highlight specific tissue properties. For example, they are particularly useful for detecting substances with high magnetic susceptibility, such as iron-containing compounds like ferritin and hemosiderin, or paramagnetic substances like gadolinium contrast agents. This makes them valuable in neuroimaging for identifying areas of hemorrhage, calcification, or the presence of contrast agent enhancement.

These sequences are often characterized by their reliance on gradient echo (GRE) techniques. The inherent sensitivity of GRE sequences to magnetic field inhomogeneities, which are caused by susceptibility differences, makes them ideal for generating suszeptibilitätsgewichtete images. By carefully adjusting imaging parameters, such as echo time, the signal intensity in these images can be made to depend heavily on the local magnetic susceptibility. This allows for the visualization and quantification of susceptibility variations, providing valuable diagnostic information that may not be apparent with other MRI sequences.