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T₁ relaxation time and magnetic resonance imaging of inflamed gingival tissue

R Schara^*,1, I Sera² and U Skaleri¹

¹University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Oral Medicine and Periodontology, Hrvatski trg 6, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; ²Joef Stefan Institute, Jamova 39, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

*Correspondence to: Rok Schara, Clinical Centre Ljubljana, Dental Clinic, Hrvatski trg 6, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia; E-mail: rok.schara{at}telemach.net

Received 29 February 2008; revised 25 April 2008; accepted 7 May 2008

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of MRI as a non-invasive method for the characterization of the inflammation and healing processes in periodontal tissues.

Methods: For the in vitro study, 99 gingival samples were collected during periodontal surgical treatment and T₁ relaxation time measurements were performed and correlated to the probing depth measurements recorded at the collection sites. For the in vivo study, a group of eight patients with moderate to advanced periodontal disease was examined with pre-contrast and Gd-DTPA contrast-enhanced T₁ weighted MRI both before and 3 months after non-surgical periodontal therapy. On the MR images of the 8 patients, 53 regions of interest (ROIs) were selected. For each ROI, the ratio between post- and pre-contrast signal intensity (RSI) was calculated and used as a measure for the degree of inflammation.

Results: The in vitro T₁ relaxation times measurements of gingival samples showed an increase in relaxation times with the increase of probing depth at the sites of tissue removal. The in vivo studies demonstrated that the reduction of inflammation and probing pepth in gingival tissues after non-surgical periodontal therapy correlates with a decrease of RSI in T₁ weighted MR images. The non-invasively obtained data provide the characteristic ratio U, which shows that two distinct types of inflammation occurred in the examined group of patients.

Conclusions: The results of MRI provide a new possibility to characterize the type and healing process of periodontal inflammation.

Keywords: periodontal diseases; magnetic resonance imaging; magnetic resonance spectroscopy; wound healing