{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,10]],"date-time":"2026-02-10T17:59:31Z","timestamp":1770746371380,"version":"3.49.0"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,24]],"date-time":"2024-07-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1721779200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Canon Medical Systems, USA","award":["35938"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["35938"]}]},{"name":"Canon Medical Systems Corporation, Japan","award":["35938"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["35938"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Computation"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Isthmic spondylolysis is characterized by a stress injury to the pars interarticularis bones of the lumbar spines and is often missed by conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), necessitating a computed tomography (CT) for accurate diagnosis. We compare MRI techniques suitable for producing CT-like images. Lumbar spines of asymptomatic and low back pain (LBP) subjects were imaged at 3-Tesla with multi-echo ultrashort echo time (UTE) and field echo (FE) sequences followed by simple post-processing of averaging and inverting to depict spinal bones with a CT-like appearance. The contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR) for bone was determined to compare UTE vs. FE and single-echo vs. multi-echo data. Visually, both sequences depicted cortical bone with good contrast; UTE-processed sequences provided a flatter contrast for soft tissues that made them easy to distinguish from bone, while FE-processed images had better resolution and bone\u2013muscle contrast, which are important for fracture detection. Additionally, multi-echo images provided significantly (p = 0.03) greater CNR compared with single-echo images. Using these techniques, progressive spondylolysis was detected in an LBP subject. This study demonstrates the feasibility of using spine bone MRI to yield CT-like contrast. Through the employment of multi-echo UTE and FE sequences combined with simple processing, we observe sufficient enhancements in image quality and contrast to detect pars fractures.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/computation12080152","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,24]],"date-time":"2024-07-24T10:46:20Z","timestamp":1721817980000},"page":"152","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":4,"title":["Ultrashort Echo Time and Fast Field Echo Imaging for Spine Bone Imaging with Application in Spondylolysis Evaluation"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-8291-7610","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Diana","family":"Vucevic","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiology, University of California-San Diego, San Diego, CA 92103, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Vadim","family":"Malis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiology, University of California-San Diego, San Diego, CA 92103, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yuichi","family":"Yamashita","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Canon Medical Systems Corporation, Otawara 324-0036, Tochigi, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Anya","family":"Mesa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiology, University of California-San Diego, San Diego, CA 92103, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Tomosuke","family":"Yamaguchi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiology, University of California-San Diego, San Diego, CA 92103, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Suraj","family":"Achar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Family Medicine, University of California-San Diego, San Diego, CA 92103, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5690-694X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Mitsue","family":"Miyazaki","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiology, University of California-San Diego, San Diego, CA 92103, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2616-0339","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Won C.","family":"Bae","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Radiology, University of California-San Diego, San Diego, CA 92103, USA"},{"name":"Department of Radiology, VA San Diego Healthcare System, San Diego, CA 92161, USA"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,7,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"606","DOI":"10.2105\/AJPH.82.4.606","article-title":"The epidemiology of low back pain in an adolescent population","volume":"82","author":"Olsen","year":"1992","journal-title":"Am. 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