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Reproducibility of dGEMRIC in assessment of hip joint cartilage: A prospective study
Author(s) -
Bittersohl Bernd,
Hosalkar Harish S.,
Haamberg Tanja,
Kim YoungJo,
Werlen Stefan,
Siebenrock Klaus A.,
Mamisch Tallal C.
Publication year - 2009
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.21822
Subject(s) - reproducibility , medicine , asymptomatic , nuclear medicine , cartilage , cartilage damage , region of interest , radiology , surgery , articular cartilage , osteoarthritis , pathology , anatomy , statistics , alternative medicine , mathematics
Purpose To investigate the reproducibility of dGEMRIC in the assessment of cartilage health of the adult asymptomatic hip joint. Materials and Methods Fifteen asymptomatic volunteers (mean age, 26.3 years ± 3.0) were preliminarily studied. Any volunteer that was incidentally diagnosed with damaged cartilage on MRI (n = 5) was excluded. Ten patients that had no evidence of prior cartilage damage (mean age, 26.2 years ± 3.4) were evaluated further in this study. The reproducibility of dGEMRIC was assessed with two T1 Gd exams performed 4 weeks apart in these volunteers. The protocol involved an initial standard MRI to confirm healthy cartilage, which was then followed by dGEMRIC. The second scan included only the repeat dGEMRIC. Region of interest (ROI) analyses for T1 Gd ‐measurement was performed in seven radial reformats. Statistical analysis included the student's t‐test and intra‐class correlation (ICC) measurement to assess reproducibility. Results Overall 70 ROIs were studied. Mean cartilage T1 Gd values at various loci ranged from 560.9 ms to 684.4 ms at the first set of readings and 551.5 ms to 662.2 ms in the second one. The mean difference per region of interest between the two T1 Gd ‐measurements ranged from 21.4 ms (3.7%) to 45.0 ms (6.8%), which was not found to be statistically significant ( P = 0.153). There was a high reproducibility detected (ICC range, 0.667–0.915). Intra‐ and Inter‐observer analyses proved a high agreement for T1 Gd assessment (0.973 and 0.932). Conclusion We found dGEMRIC to be a reliable tool in the assessment of cartilage health status in adult hip joints. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2009;30:224–228. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.