Oral Presentation at the European Congress of Radiology, Vienna, 2019

Purpose

To evaluate the temporal and inter magnetic field strength variability of T2 values of the cartilage, menisci and muscles of the knee joint using healthy volunteer data.

Methods and Materials

T2 CartiGram (CG) sequence of knee joint was performed on Four healthy asymptomatic volunteers (age 32±3 years) on 3.0T and 1.5T (GE Healthcare) MRI scanners in addition to the standard MRI. In the first part of the study, for evaluating the same day variability at 1.5T and 3.0T, CG was performed twice with a break of 5 minutes and subject lying in the same position inside the scanner. In the second part, for evaluating inter-day variability on the same scanner, CG was performed twice with a gap of 1 month on 3.0T scanner. From the T2 map, mean values and coefficient of variation were calculated.

Results

The intra-day coefficient of variations for the lateral and medial side were 0.49%, 0.77% for the cartilage, 1.57%, 1.60% for muscle and 2.2%, 2.7% for meniscus on 1.5 T whereas the similar values were 0.69 %, 0.6 % for cartilage, 0.66 %, 1.2 % for muscle and 3.0 and 1.8 for meniscus on 3 T.The temporal coefficient of variations for the lateral and medial side were 3.2%, 4.7% for the cartilage, 1.17%, 0.46% for muscle and 7.8%, 4.3 % for meniscus.

Conclusion

The intra-day variability of the T2 values was lowest for the cartilage on 1.5 T and 3T scanner whereas the temporal variability was lowest for the muscles.