Whole-body MR screening of muscles in the evaluation of neuromuscular diseases

Involvement patterns in myotilinopathy and desminopathy detected by a novel neuromuscular whole-body MRI protocol

“…In 2004 a WB-MRI protocol for screening of muscles in patients with different neuromuscular diseases was presented [35]. Axial T1w, T2w and PDw fat saturated images were obtained at six different body levels.…”

Correlation between quantitative whole‐body muscle magnetic resonance imaging and clinical muscle weakness in pompe disease

“…Whole-body MRI has begun to show promise in screening, diagnosis, and sensitive tracking of a variety of neuromuscular diseases. [10][11][12][13] Unfortunately, fatty infiltration of muscle, which is the dominant musculoskeletal abnormality in Pompe disease, can be technically challenging to quantify accurately on MR. As a result, nearly all MR studies in neuromuscular diseases have historically been qualitative, including the only existing whole-body MR description of LOPD patients, 14 which employed the standard 4-point Mercuri classification. 15 More recently, technical innovations in MRI have produced clinically useful quantitation of fat in the liver, skeletal muscle, and other organ systems.…”

Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Skeletal Musculature

“…In agreement with other authors (Lenk et al 2004) we think that a neuromuscular WB MRI protocol should include both STIR and T1w sequences to detect both muscle edema and fatty infiltration reliably. In some older studies, only axial slices were obtained and the body coil was utilized (Ozsarlak et al 2004). In some older studies, only axial slices were obtained and the body coil was utilized (Ozsarlak et al 2004).…”