Ultrafast Biomechanical T2 Mapping Of Knee Articular Cartilage Using A Radial Turbo-Spin-Echo Sequence At 3T- Initial Results

Purpose: Quantitative MRI maps of knee cartilage have been used in osteoarthritis (OA) research as a tool for detection of early OA changes. Various studies investigated the effect of mechanical loading on mean T2 of knee cartilage regions in both OA patients and healthy controls. However due to relatively long measurement times, only biomechanical effects after several minutes to hours of compression are described in literature. Fast and accurate T2 mapping technique could provide a useful tool for assessment of dynamic changes in cartilage during compression. The aim of this work was to validate the prototype radial turbo-spin-echo (rTSE) sequence, optimized for multi-slice T2 mapping at 3T in comparison to conventional Cartesian multi-echo spin echo (CPMG) sequence.