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Title: Accelerating t 1ρ cartilage imaging using compressed sensing with iterative locally adapted support detection and JSENSE: Fast T 1ρ Cartilage Imaging
Award ID(s):
1265612
NSF-PAR ID:
10018748
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Magnetic Resonance in Medicine
Volume:
75
Issue:
4
ISSN:
0740-3194
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1617 to 1629
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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  1. Chemical exchange saturation transfer of glycosaminoglycans, gagCEST, is a quantitative MR technique that has potential for assessing cartilage proteoglycan content at field strengths of 7 T and higher. However, its utility at 3 T remains unclear. The objective of this work was to implement a rapid volumetric gagCEST sequence with higher gagCEST asymmetry at 3 T to evaluate its sensitivity to osteoarthritic changes in knee articular cartilage and in comparison withT2andTmeasures. We hypothesize that gagCEST asymmetry at 3 T decreases with increasing severity of osteoarthritis (OA). Forty‐two human volunteers, including 10 healthy subjects and 32 subjects with medial OA, were included in the study. Knee Injury and Osteoarthritis Outcome Scores (KOOS) were assessed for all subjects, and Kellgren‐Lawrence grading was performed for OA volunteers. Healthy subjects were scanned consecutively at 3 T to assess the repeatability of the volumetric gagCEST sequence at 3 T. For healthy and OA subjects, gagCEST asymmetry andT2andTrelaxation times were calculated for the femoral articular cartilage to assess sensitivity to OA severity. Volumetric gagCEST imaging had higher gagCEST asymmetry than single‐slice acquisitions (p= 0.015). The average scan‐rescan coefficient of variation was 6.8%. There were no significant differences in average gagCEST asymmetry between younger and older healthy controls (p= 0.655) or between healthy controls and OA subjects (p= 0.310).T2andTrelaxation times were elevated in OA subjects (p< 0.001 for both) compared with healthy controls and both were moderately correlated with total KOOS scores (rho = −0.181 and rho = −0.332 respectively). The gagCEST technique developed here, with volumetric scan times under 10 min and high gagCEST asymmetry at 3 T, did not vary significantly between healthy subjects and those with mild‐moderate OA. This further supports a limited utility for gagCEST imaging at 3 T for assessment of early changes in cartilage composition in OA.

     
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  2. Purpose

    To develop a radial, double‐echo steady‐state (DESS) sequence with ultra‐short echo‐time (UTE) capabilities for T2measurement of short‐T2tissues along with simultaneous rapid, signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR)‐efficient, and high‐isotropic‐resolution morphological knee imaging.

    Methods

    THe 3D radial UTE readouts were incorporated into DESS, termed UTEDESS. Multiple‐echo‐time UTEDESS was used for performing T2relaxometry for short‐T2tendons, ligaments, and menisci; and for Dixon water‐fat imaging. In vivo T2estimate repeatability and SNR efficiency for UTEDESS and Cartesian DESS were compared. The impact of coil combination methods on short‐T2measurements was evaluated by means of simulations. UTEDESS T2measurements were compared with T2measurements from Cartesian DESS, multi‐echo spin‐echo (MESE), and fast spin‐echo (FSE).

    Results

    UTEDESS produced isotropic resolution images with high SNR efficiency in all short‐T2tissues. Simulations and experiments demonstrated that sum‐of‐squares coil combinations overestimated short‐T2measurements. UTEDESS measurements of meniscal T2were comparable to DESS, MESE, and FSE measurements while the tendon and ligament measurements were less biased than those from Cartesian DESS. Average UTEDESS T2repeatability variation was under 10% in all tissues.

    Conclusion

    The T2measurements of short‐T2tissues and high‐resolution morphological imaging provided by UTEDESS makes it promising for studying the whole knee, both in routine clinical examinations and longitudinal studies. Magn Reson Med 78:2136–2148, 2017. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

     
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