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Diagnostic value of T 1 and T 2 * relaxation times and off‐resonance saturation effects in the evaluation of achilles tendinopathy by MRI at 3T
Author(s) -
Grosse Ulrich,
Syha Roland,
Hein Tobias,
Gatidis Sergios,
Grözinger Gerd,
Schabel Christoph,
Martirosian Petros,
Schick Fritz,
Springer Fabian
Publication year - 2015
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.24657
Subject(s) - magnetic resonance imaging , tendinopathy , receiver operating characteristic , medicine , achilles tendon , flip angle , nuclear medicine , ultrasound , nuclear magnetic resonance , radiology , tendon , pathology , physics
Purpose To evaluate and compare the diagnostic value of T 1 , T 2 * relaxation times and off‐resonance saturation ratios (OSR) in healthy controls and patients with different clinical and morphological stages of Achilles tendinopathy. Material and Methods Forty‐two healthy Achilles tendons and 34 tendons of 17 patients with symptomatic and asymptomatic tendinopathy were investigated clinically with conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences on a 3T whole‐body MR scanner and a dynamic ultrasound examination. In addition, T 1 and T 2 * relaxation times were assessed using an ultrashort echo time (UTE) imaging sequence with flip angle and echo time variation. For the calculation of OSR values a Gaussian off‐resonance saturation pulse (frequency offset: 750–5000 Hz) was used. The diagnostic value of the derived MR values was assessed and compared using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves. Results ROC curves demonstrate the highest overall test performance for OSR values at 2000 Hz off‐resonance in differentiating slightly (OSR‐2000 [AUC: 0.930] > T 2 * [AUC: 0.884] > T 1 [AUC: 0.737]) and more severe pathologically altered tendon areas (OSR‐2000 [AUC: 0.964] > T 2 * [AUC: 0.917] > T 1 [AUC: 0.819]) from healthy ones. Conclusion OSR values at a frequency offset of 2000 Hz demonstrated a better sensitivity and specificity for detecting mild and severe stages of tendinopathy compared to T 2 * and particularly when compared to T 1 relaxation times. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2015;41:964–973 . © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc .