A Multi-Parametric Investigation on Waterlogged Wood Using a Magnetic Resonance Imaging Clinical Scanner

first_pagesettingsOrder Article Reprints Open AccessArticle A Multi-Parametric Investigation on Waterlogged Wood Using a Magnetic Resonance Imaging Clinical Scanner by Sveva Longo 1ORCID,Federica Egizi 2,Valeria Stagno 2,3,*ORCID,Maria Giovanna Di Trani 2ORCID,Gianni Marchelletta 4,Tommaso Gili 5,6,Enza Fazio 7,Gabriele Favero 4ORCID andSilvia Capuani 2,8,*ORCID 1 CNR ISPC, via Cardinal Guglielmo Sanfelice 8, 80134 Naples, Italy 2 CNR-ISC, c/o Department of Physics, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy 3 Department of Earth Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy 4 Department of Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Rome, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy 5 IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia Rome, via Ardeatina 306, 00179 Rome, Italy 6 Networks Unit, IMT Scuola Alti Studi Lucca, Piazza San Francesco 15, 55100 Lucca, Italy 7 Physics Section, Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Physical Sciences and Earth Sciences (MIFT), University of Messina, 98166 Messina, Italy 8 CREF, Museo Storico Della Fisica e Centro Studi e Ricerche Enrico Fermi, 00185 Rome, Italy * Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed. Forests 2023, 14(2), 276; https://doi.org/10.3390/f14020276 Received: 11 December 2022 / Revised: 19 January 2023 / Accepted: 25 January 2023 / Published: 31 January 2023 (This article belongs to the Collection Historical Wood: Structure, Properties and Conservation) Download Browse Figures Review Reports Versions Notes Abstract In cultural heritage conservation science, moisture content (MC) is an essential factor to determine. At the same time, it is essential to choose non-destructive and non-invasive approaches for more sustainable investigations and make them safe for the environment and the sample. The question addressed in this work concerns the possibility and the opportunity to investigate waterlogged wood by using nuclear magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) clinical scanners to carry out non-destructive volumetric diagnostics. In this study, MRI, the most important non-invasive medical imaging technique for human tissue analysis, was applied to study archaeological waterlogged wood samples. This type of archaeological material has a very high moisture content (400%–800%), thus, it is an ideal investigative subject for MRI which detects water molecules inside matter. By following this methodology, it was possible to obtain information about water content and conservation status through a T1, T2, and T2* weighted image analysis, without any sampling or handling, and the samples were directly scanned in the water where they were stored. Furthermore, it permited processing 3D reconstruction, which could be an innovative tool for the digitalization of marine archaeological collections. In this work, 16 modern species of wood and a waterlogged archaeological wood sample were studied and investigated using a clinical NMR scanner operating at 3T. The results were compared with X-ray computed tomography (CT) images, as they had already been used for dendrochronology. The comparison highlights the similar, different, and complementary information about moisture content and conservation status in an all-in-one methodology obtainable from both MRI and CT techniques.