Radiography and Diagnostic Imaging, School of Medicine, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Department of Radiology, Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, Dublin, Ireland.
Eur Radiol. 2017 Nov;27(11):4563-4570. doi: 10.1007/s00330-017-4816-x. Epub 2017 Apr 21.
To investigate optimised isotropic 3D turbo spin echo (TSE) and gradient echo (GRE)-based pulse sequences for visualisation of articular cartilage lesions within the knee joint.
Optimisation of experimental imaging sequences was completed using healthy volunteers (n=16) with a 3-Tesla (3T) MRI scanner. Imaging of patients with knee cartilage abnormalities (n=57) was then performed. Acquired sequences included 3D proton density-weighted (PDW) TSE (SPACE) with and without fat-suppression (FS), and T2*W GRE (TrueFISP) sequences, with acquisition times of 6:51, 6:32 and 5:35 min, respectively.
One hundred sixty-one confirmed cartilage lesions were detected and categorised (Grade II n=90, Grade III n=71). The highest sensitivity and specificity for detecting cartilage lesions were obtained with TrueFISP with values of 84.7% and 92%, respectively. Cartilage SNR mean for PDW SPACE-FS was the highest at 72.2. TrueFISP attained the highest CNR means for joint fluid/cartilage (101.5) and joint fluid/ligament (156.5), and the lowest CNR for cartilage/meniscus (48.5). Significant differences were identified across the three sequences for all anatomical structures with respect to SNR and CNR findings (p-value <0.05).
Isotropic TrueFISP at 3T, optimised for acquisition time, accurately detects cartilage defects, although it demonstrated the lowest contrast between cartilage and meniscus.
• Cartilage is better visualised with 3D TrueFISP than 3D SPACE sequences. • 3D TrueFISP is a reliable sequence for detecting low- and high-grade cartilage defects. • 3D TrueFISP at 3T provides excellent contrast between cartilage and joint fluid.
研究优化的各向同性 3D 涡轮自旋回波（TSE）和梯度回波（GRE）基础脉冲序列，用于可视化膝关节内的关节软骨病变。
使用 3 特斯拉（3T）MRI 扫描仪对健康志愿者（n=16）进行实验成像序列的优化。然后对膝关节软骨异常的患者（n=57）进行成像。采集的序列包括 3D 质子密度加权（PDW）TSE（SPACE），有和没有脂肪抑制（FS），以及 T2*W GRE（TrueFISP）序列，采集时间分别为 6:51、6:32 和 5:35 分钟。
共检测和分类了 161 个确认的软骨病变（Grade II n=90，Grade III n=71）。TrueFISP 检测软骨病变的最高灵敏度和特异性分别为 84.7%和 92%。PDW SPACE-FS 的软骨 SNR 平均值最高，为 72.2。TrueFISP 获得了关节液/软骨（101.5）和关节液/韧带（156.5）的最高 CNR 平均值，以及软骨/半月板（48.5）的最低 CNR。对于所有解剖结构，在 SNR 和 CNR 发现方面，三种序列之间均存在显著差异（p 值<0.05）。
优化采集时间的 3T 各向同性 TrueFISP 准确地检测到软骨缺陷，尽管它显示了软骨和半月板之间的最低对比度。
• 3D TrueFISP 比 3D SPACE 序列更能清晰地显示软骨。• 3D TrueFISP 是一种可靠的序列，可用于检测低级别和高级别软骨缺陷。• 3T 上的 3D TrueFISP 提供了软骨和关节液之间极好的对比度。
