Research Article
Ultrashort TE (UTE) Imaging of the Knee Cartilage at 3T
| Song Gao1, Shanglian Bao1, Christine B Chung2, Graeme M Bydder2 and Jiang Du2 | |
| 1Beijing Key Lab of Medical Physics and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China | |
| 2Department of Radiology, University of California, San Diego, USA | |
| Corresponding Author : | Jiang Du Department of Radiology University of California San Diego, 200 West Arbor Drive San Diego, CA 92103-8756, USA Tel: (619) 471-0519 Fax: (619) 471-0503 E-mail: jiangdu@ucsd.edu |
| Received April 06, 2013; Accepted April 17, 2013; Published April 22, 2013 | |
| Citation: Gao S, Bao S, Chung CB, Bydder GM, Du J (2013) Ultrashort TE (UTE) Imaging of the Knee Cartilage at 3T. OMICS J Radiology 2:118. doi: 10.4172/2167-7964.1000118 | |
| Copyright: © 2013 Gao S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. | |
Abstract
While MR imaging has emerged as the imaging method of choice for diagnosis of cartilage disease, the deep radial and calcified layers of cartilage are difficult to image with conventional MRI because of their short T2 relaxation times. The imaging of cartilage injury and osteoarthritis (OA) has therefore focused on the superficial layers of cartilage. We describe herein the implementation of Ultrashort Echo Time (UTE) pulse sequences with Echo Times (TEs) as low as 8 μs on a clinical 3T scanner. Various adaptations were made to the regular UTE acquisition in order to optimize image contrast between the deep layers and superficial layers of cartilage. These modifications included multiple gradient echo UTE acquisition with and without fat saturation, and multiple spin echo UTE acquisition. The efficacy of these techniques in depicting the targeted tissues was demonstrated through imaging of cadaveric samples and healthy volunteers. Excellent depiction of these different regions was obtained, enhanced particularly with fat suppression and later echo subtraction methods. Quantitative measurements showed that while UTE Free Induction Decay (FID) acquisition provided the highest signal-to-noise ratio, both fat suppression and later echo subtraction enhanced the contrast between the deep and superficial layers of cartilage.
