v. contrast agent (CA) administration. Six volunteers were included in the study (two men, four women; age range, 20.8–28.1 years; mean BMI of 21.95, BMI range, 20.03–24.22). Volunteers were recruited both at the Bernhard-Gottlieb University Clinic of Dentistry, Department of Orthodontics and at the High Field MR Centre of the Medical INK 128 University of Vienna. The local ethics committee approved this study and all volunteers gave written, informed consent. Prior the inclusion of the volunteers into the study, TMJ status of each individual volunteer was inspected

by the experienced radiologist (S.T. – 18 years of experience in radiology). Only those volunteers, which were clinically asymptomatic and had physiological disc position, were enrolled into this study. MR examinations were performed on a 3 T whole-body Magnetom TimTrio scanner (Siemens Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany) equipped with gradient coils that provided a gradient field of 40 mT/m, TGF-beta inhibitor slew rate of 200 mT/m/s. Volunteers lay supine with the head fixed to the flexible eight-channel multi-element coil (Noras, Würzburg, Germany). Coil elements were in close touch with the volunteer`s face, preventing motion of the volunteer`s head during the exam. A bolus of a double dose 0.2 mmol/kg of Gd-diethylenetriamine

pentaacetic acid ion (Gd-DTPA)2-, i.e. 0.4 mL of Magnevist™ per kg body weight (Bayer Vital GmbH, Leverkusen, Germany) was administered to the volunteers after the initial native measurement. A parasagittal slice orientation was used in the inversion recovery as well as the 3D-GRE

technique (Fig. 1). Fig. 2 shows the morphology of the TMJ. Three volunteers were examined using 2D inversion Montelukast Sodium recovery protocols (Fig. 3), and the other three volunteers were examined using a 3D-GRE dual flip angle technique (3D-GRE). Fig. 4 shows an example of a T1 map calculated from the data measured by the 3D-GRE dual flip angle technique. For the 2D inversion recovery sequences, the MR protocol consisted of nine different inversion recovery measurements, with a 2D multi-slice, inversion recovery, spin-echo technique with inversion times as follows: [60, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 1000, 1500, 2500 ms]; TR set to 5000 ms; TE of 8.1 ms; number of slices 4; slice thickness 3 mm; spectral width 260 Hz/pixel; matrix size 384 × 384; flip angle 180 degrees; pixel resolution 0.52 × 0.52 mm; a total acquisition time of 2 min 57 s for IR of 60 ms, up to 4 min 23 s for an IR time of 2500 ms; and an FOV of 199 × 199 mm. The TR parameter increased with inversion time increases, maintaining TR constant. In order to perform rapid (fine time-resolved) contrast agent uptake measurement, fast 3D-GRE was performed. The Siemens built-in B1 mapping was automatically performed before the first 3D-GRE measurement. The resulting B1 map was used for automatic image correction.