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Parallel imaging of knee cartilage at 3 Tesla
Author(s) -
Zuo Jin,
Li Xiaojuan,
Banerjee Suchandrima,
Han Eric,
Majumdar Sharmila
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
journal of magnetic resonance imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.563
H-Index - 160
eISSN - 1522-2586
pISSN - 1053-1807
DOI - 10.1002/jmri.21122
Subject(s) - reproducibility , knee cartilage , intraclass correlation , cartilage , biomedical engineering , t2 relaxation , materials science , magnetic resonance imaging , repeatability , nuclear medicine , nuclear magnetic resonance , medicine , articular cartilage , osteoarthritis , radiology , physics , mathematics , anatomy , pathology , statistics , alternative medicine
Purpose To evaluate the feasibility and reproducibility of quantitative cartilage imaging with parallel imaging at 3T and to determine the impact of the acceleration factor (AF) on morphological and relaxation measurements. Materials and Methods An eight‐channel phased‐array knee coil was employed for conventional and parallel imaging on a 3T scanner. The imaging protocol consisted of a T2‐weighted fast spin echo (FSE), a 3D‐spoiled gradient echo (SPGR), a custom 3D‐SPGR T1rho, and a 3D‐SPGR T2 sequence. Parallel imaging was performed with an array spatial sensitivity technique (ASSET). The left knees of six healthy volunteers were scanned with both conventional and parallel imaging (AF = 2). Results Morphological parameters and relaxation maps from parallel imaging methods (AF = 2) showed comparable results with conventional method. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) of the two methods for cartilage volume, mean cartilage thickness, T1rho, and T2 were 0.999, 0.977, 0.964, and 0.969, respectively, while demonstrating excellent reproducibility. No significant measurement differences were found when AF reached 3 despite the low signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR). Conclusion The study demonstrated that parallel imaging can be applied to current knee cartilage quantification at AF = 2 without degrading measurement accuracy with good reproducibility while effectively reducing scan time. Shorter imaging times can be achieved with higher AF at the cost of SNR. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2007;26:1001–1009. © 2007 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.