Banitalebi Hasan, Owesen Christian, Årøen Asbjørn, Tran Hang Thi, Myklebust Tor Åge, Randsborg Per-Henrik
Department of Diagnostic Imaging, Akershus University Hospital, 1478, Lørenskog, Norway.
Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
J Exp Orthop. 2021 Apr 28;8(1):34. doi: 10.1186/s40634-021-00350-1.
To evaluate the effect of imaging plane and experience of observers on the reliability of T2 mapping of native and repair cartilage tissue of the knee.
Fifteen consecutive patients from two randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were included in this cross-sectional study. Patients with an isolated knee cartilage lesion were randomised to receive either debridement or microfracture (RCT 1) or debridement or autologous chondrocyte implantation (RCT 2). T2 mapping was performed in coronal and sagittal planes two years postoperatively. A musculoskeletal radiologist, a resident of radiology and two orthopaedic surgeons measured the T2 values independently. Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) with 95% Confidence Intervals was used to calculate the inter- and intraobserver agreement.
Mean age for the patients was 36.8 ± 11 years, 8 (53%) were men. The overall interobserver agreement varied from poor to good with ICCs in the range of 0.27- 0.76 for native cartilage and 0.00 - 0.90 for repair tissue. The lowest agreement was achieved for evaluations of repair cartilage tissue. The estimated ICCs suggested higher inter- and intraobserver agreement for radiologists. On medial femoral condyles, T2 values were higher for native cartilage on coronal images (p < 0.001) and for repair tissue on sagittal images (p < 0.001).
The reliability of T2 mapping of articular cartilage is influenced by the imaging plane and the experience of the observers. This influence may be more profound for repair cartilage tissue. This is important to consider when using T2 mapping to measure outcomes after cartilage repair surgery.
ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02637505 and NCT02636881 , registered December 2015.
II, based on prospective data from two RCTs.
评估成像平面和观察者经验对膝关节天然及修复软骨组织T2映射可靠性的影响。
本横断面研究纳入了来自两项随机对照试验（RCT）的15例连续患者。孤立性膝关节软骨损伤患者被随机分为接受清创术或微骨折术（RCT 1）或清创术或自体软骨细胞植入术（RCT 2）。术后两年在冠状面和矢状面进行T2映射。一名肌肉骨骼放射科医生、一名放射科住院医师和两名骨科医生独立测量T2值。使用具有95%置信区间的组内相关系数（ICC）来计算观察者间和观察者内的一致性。
患者的平均年龄为36.8±11岁，8例（53%）为男性。观察者间的总体一致性从差到好不等，天然软骨的ICC范围为0.27 - 0.76，修复组织的ICC范围为0.00 - 0.90。对修复软骨组织的评估一致性最低。估计的ICC表明放射科医生的观察者间和观察者内一致性更高。在内侧股骨髁上，冠状面图像上天然软骨的T2值较高（p < 0.001），矢状面图像上修复组织的T2值较高（p < 0.001）。
关节软骨T2映射的可靠性受成像平面和观察者经验的影响。这种影响对修复软骨组织可能更为显著。在使用T2映射测量软骨修复手术后的结果时，这一点很重要。
ClinicalTrials.gov，NCT02637505和NCT02636881，2015年12月注册。
II级，基于两项RCT的前瞻性数据。
