Vladimir Juras1, Štefan Zbýň2, Vladimir Mlynarik2, Pavol Szomolanyi3, Benedikt Hager2, Peter Baer2, Ivan Frollo4, Siegfried Trattnig5. 1. High Field MR Centre, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Department of Imaging Methods, Institute of Measurement Science, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia. Electronic address: vladimir.juras@meduniwien.ac.at. 2. High Field MR Centre, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. 3. High Field MR Centre, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Department of Imaging Methods, Institute of Measurement Science, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia. 4. Department of Imaging Methods, Institute of Measurement Science, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia. 5. High Field MR Centre, Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; Christian Doppler Laboratory for Clinical Molecular MR Imaging, Vienna, Austria; Austrian Cluster for Tissue Regeneration, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Experimental and Clinical Traumatology, Vienna, Austria.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES: The aim was to systematically compare T2 relaxation times of the knee and ankle cartilage within subjects at 7T. METHODS: Ten healthy volunteers were examined by 7 Tesla MR using a three-dimensional triple-echo steady state sequence (3D-TESS). The differences between seven cartilage compartments (patella, femur, proximal tibia, and distal tibia and talus in both medial and lateral facet) were analyzed by ANOVA. RESULTS: The results showed statistically significantly higher T2 (mean ± standard deviation, in milliseconds) values in patellar (25.8 ± 1.2) and femoral (24.9 ± 1.3) cartilage compared to the tibial (19.2 ± 1) and talar (18.1 ± 0.6 ms) cartilage. The cartilages of the medial and lateral facet in the ankle joint were not significantly different (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to systematically compare within-subject T2 values in the knee and ankle non-invasively, in vivo. Our results are in agreement with the previous findings demonstrating different biochemical and biomechanical properties between the knee and ankle cartilage.
OBJECTIVES: The aim was to systematically compare T2 relaxation times of the knee and ankle cartilage within subjects at 7T. METHODS: Ten healthy volunteers were examined by 7 Tesla MR using a three-dimensional triple-echo steady state sequence (3D-TESS). The differences between seven cartilage compartments (patella, femur, proximal tibia, and distal tibia and talus in both medial and lateral facet) were analyzed by ANOVA. RESULTS: The results showed statistically significantly higher T2 (mean ± standard deviation, in milliseconds) values in patellar (25.8 ± 1.2) and femoral (24.9 ± 1.3) cartilage compared to the tibial (19.2 ± 1) and talar (18.1 ± 0.6 ms) cartilage. The cartilages of the medial and lateral facet in the ankle joint were not significantly different (p>0.05). CONCLUSIONS: This is the first study to systematically compare within-subject T2 values in the knee and ankle non-invasively, in vivo. Our results are in agreement with the previous findings demonstrating different biochemical and biomechanical properties between the knee and ankle cartilage.