Magnetic resonance imaging of the zone of calcified cartilage in the knee joint using 3-dimensional ultrashort echo time cones sequences.
10.1097/CM9.0000000000000103
- Author:
Jin LIU
1
;
Yang WEI
2
;
Ya-Jun MA
3
;
Yan-Chun ZHU
3
;
Quan ZHOU
1
;
Ying-Hua ZHAO
1
Author Information
1. Department of Radiology, Third Affiliated Hospital of Southern Medical University (Academy of Orthopedics, Guangdong Province), Guangzhou, Guangdong 510630, China.
2. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Medical Image Processing, School of Biomedical Engineering, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510515, China.
3. Department of Radiology, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA.
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- MeSH:
Adult;
Aged;
Aged, 80 and over;
Female;
Humans;
Imaging, Three-Dimensional;
methods;
Knee Joint;
pathology;
Magnetic Resonance Imaging;
methods;
Male;
Middle Aged;
Osteoarthritis;
diagnostic imaging
- From:
Chinese Medical Journal
2019;132(5):562-568
- CountryChina
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
BACKGROUND:The zone of calcified cartilage (ZCC) plays an important role in the pathogenesis of osteoarthritis (OA) but has never been imaged in vivo with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging techniques. We investigated the feasibility of direct imaging of the ZCC in both cadaveric whole knee specimens and in vivo healthy knees using a 3-dimensional ultrashort echo time cones (3D UTE-Cones) sequence on a clinical 3T scanner.
METHODS:In all, 12 cadaveric knee joints and 10 in vivo healthy were collected. At a 3T MR scanner with an 8-channel knee coil, a fat-saturated 3D dual-echo UTE-Cones sequence was used to image the ZCC, following with a short rectangular pulse excitation and 3D spiral sampling with conical view ordering. The regions of interests (ROIs) were delineated by a blinded observer. Single-component T2* and T2 values were calculated from fat-saturated 3D dual-echo UTE-Cones and a Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (T2 CPMG) data using a semi-automated MATLAB code.
RESULTS:The single-exponential fitting curve of ZCC was accurately obtained with R2 of 0.989. For keen joint samples, the ZCC has a short T2* ranging from 0.62 to 2.55 ms, with the mean ± standard deviation (SD) of 1.49 ± 0.66 ms, and with 95% confidence intervals (CI) of 1.20-1.78 ms. For volunteers, the short T2* ranges from 0.93 to 3.52 ms, with the mean ± SD of 2.09 ± 0.56 ms, and the 95% CI is 1.43 to 2.74 ms in ZCC.
CONCLUSIONS:The high-resolution 3D UTE-Cones sequence might be used to directly image ZCC in the human knee joint on a clinical 3T scanner with a scan time of more than 10 min. Using this non-invasive technique, the T2* relaxation time of the ZCC can be further detected.
