مقاله انگلیسی رایگان در مورد MRI برای برنامه های دندانپزشکی – الزویر 2018

Visualize an MRI scanner that is less expensive and designed to image a smaller field of view (FOV), like a knee, ankle, or wrist. Such anatomy-specific MRI scanners have been developed and are currently or soon to be available.1 Facilitating this development is an MRI design shift away from using larger and more expensive magnets with excellent field homogeneity and toward accepting smaller, less homogeneous (or less perfect) magnetic fields produced by cheaper and smaller magnets. Image formation can remain feasible by computationally correcting for magnet inhomogeneity and technological advances in pulse sequences and coil design, allowing for MRI scanners to become even cheaper to manufacture.1–3 Now, imagine optimizing these smaller FOV scanners to image teeth, the jaws, and face, and you have the design of an MRI scanner designed for dental use. The physics of producing an image with magnetic resonance are more complex and quite different from computed tomography (CT) or cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) using radiograph. Consequently, MRI has considerably more opportunity for producing useful depictions of human tissues. With the development of dental and face-specific MRI coils, plus the freedom found in sequence design and image processing, researchers can feasibly develop custom techniques to address any number of dental imaging indications: anatomic characterization of hard tissues including bone and teeth for “routine” dental indications like implant placement, caries detection, and fracture detection; anatomic and functional characterization of soft tissues, including periodontal/periapical inflammation, muscle and nerves to characterize neural and pain disorders, and pathologic tissue characterization to diagnose neoplasms and dysplasia without a surgical biopsy; blood flow imaging in both bulk and perfusion forms to assess tissue viability/inflammatory status; and finally, spectroscopy to provide molecular profiles of tissue. Related technological advances in pulse sequence design will likely lead us into uncharted knowledge about normal dental anatomy and physiology as well as pathology and pathophysiology. In this article, the authors provide a brief overview of the use of conventional MRI techniques applied to dental indications, discuss relevant MRI physics in the various steps of image formation, and highlight recent hardware and software technical developments that contribute to (1) the cost/size of MRI decreasing significantly, allowing use in the typical dental clinic, and (2) the facilitation of very specific dental imaging applications that will solve clinical problems.