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Fast quantitative three‐dimensional ultrashort echo time (UTE) Cones magnetic resonance imaging of major tissues in the knee joint using extended sprial sampling
Author(s) -
Wan Lidi,
Ma Yajun,
Yang Jiawei,
Jerban Saeed,
Searleman Adam C.,
Carl Michael,
Le Nicole,
Chang Eric Y.,
Tang Guangyu,
Du Jiang
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
nmr in biomedicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.278
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1099-1492
pISSN - 0952-3480
DOI - 10.1002/nbm.4376
Subject(s) - spiral (railway) , sampling (signal processing) , magnetic resonance imaging , knee joint , cadaveric spasm , nuclear magnetic resonance , nuclear medicine , biomedical engineering , materials science , physics , anatomy , medicine , mathematics , optics , radiology , mathematical analysis , surgery , detector
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of extending the spiral sampling window on quantitative 3D ultrashort echo time (UTE) Cones imaging of major knee joint tissues including articular cartilage, menisci, tendons and ligaments at 3 T. Nine cadaveric human whole knee specimens were imaged on a 3 T clinical MRI scanner. A series of quantitative 3D UTE Cones imaging biomarkers including T 2 *, T 1 , adiabatic T 1ρ , magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) and macromolecular fraction (MMF) were estimated using spiral sampling trajectories with various durations. Errors in UTE MRI biomarkers as a function of sampling time were evaluated using a nonstretched spiral trajectory as a reference standard. No significant differences were observed by increasing the spiral sampling window from 1116 to 2232 μs in the calculated T 2 *, T 1 , adiabatic T 1ρ , MTR and MMF, as all P ‐values were over .05 as assessed by ANOVA with two‐sided Dunnett's test. Although extending the sampling window results in signal loss for short T 2 components, there was limited effect on the calculated quantitative biomarkers, with error percentages typically smaller than 5% in all the evaluated tissues. The total scan time can be reduced by up to 54% with quantification errors of less than 5% in any evaluated major tissue in the knee joint, suggesting that 3D UTE Cones MRI techniques can be greatly accelerated by using a longer spiral sampling window without causing additional quantitative bias.