29Si imaging of silicone breast implants and intraocular silicone oil

✍ Scribed by Reta Haselhorst; Klaus Scheffler; Leonardo Faletti; Armin Kaspar; Christian Prünte; Joachim Seelig

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 613 KB
• Volume: 40
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0740-3194
• DOI: 10.1002/mrm.1910400123

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

Silicon‐29 (^29^Si) imaging was investigated as a potential imaging modality for monitoring silicone prostheses in humans. The ^29^Si relaxation times of several silicone gels were measured and found to average T~1~ = 21.2 ± 1.5 s and T~2~ = 207 ± 40 ms, with no significant difference between virgin and explanted gels. A single‐shot half‐Fourier rapid acquisition with relaxation enhancement (RARE) and a refocused gradientecho sequence were used for acquiring ^29^Si images with 5 × 5 mm^2^ resolution and no slice selection. Three volunteers with silicone‐gel‐filled breast implants and one subject with an intraocular silicone oil injection were thus examined in a total acquisition time of 10–15 min per image. On all ^29^Si images, the shape of the silicone object was well depicted. Although at present, conventional proton images are superior in resolution and signal‐to‐noise ratio, ^29^Si imaging has the advantage of optimal specificity, since only the silicone itself is visible.