Clinical evaluation of spine disorders using high contrast cartilaginous endplate imaging

Motivation: Lower back pain is a common cause of ailment driven by disc degeneration and endplate defects. Imaging the CEP region would increase the diagnostic accuracy of early detection. Goal(s): To develop an optimized sequence to image the CEP that is readily translatable to clinical settings. Approach: The clinically available 3D FS-SPGR sequence was optimized and applied to image the CEP with high contrast for both asymptomatic and symptomatic subjects. Results: The optimized 3D FS-SPGR sequence with T1-weighting can delineate the CEP regions with high contrast and reveal irregularities that are not visible on routinely used protocols. Impact: The fast T1-weighted 3D FS-SPGR sequence can be readily implemented on clinical scanners, used to highlight the CEP, and shows promise for the detection of intervertebral disc abnormalities.