Saline versus gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance arthrography of porcine cartilage.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES

The authors compared saline and dilute gadopentetate dimeglumine as injectants for magnetic resonance (MR) arthrography.

METHODS

Sixty-three lesions were created on the joint surfaces of six pig patellas. MR arthrography (1.5 T) was performed with the specimens in saline and then in 2 mmol gadopentetate dimeglumine by using fat-saturated two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) sequences. Two musculoskeletal radiologists independently interpreted the images.

RESULTS

At 2D MR arthrography, reader 1 performed equally well with saline and gadolinium solutes, whereas reader 2 had better sensitivity with the saline solute (P < .05); interobserver agreement was equivalent for saline and gadolinium solutes. With 3D MR arthrography, reader 2 performed equally well with saline and gadolinium solutes, whereas reader 1 had better sensitivity (P < .0001) but poorer specificity (P < .001) with the gadolinium solute; interobserver agreement was significantly better for saline than for gadopentetate dimeglumine (P < .05).

CONCLUSION

In this initial evaluation, there was no clear advantage to using gadolinium-enhanced MR arthrography over saline MR arthrography for detecting lesions in porcine hyaline cartilage.