High-resolution 3D cartilage imaging with IDEAL SPGR at 3 T.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to perform imaging of cartilage at high resolution with a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with a combination of iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least-squares estimation (IDEAL) with parallel imaging at 3 T and spoiled gradient echo (SPGR) imaging. The findings with the combined technique were compared with those obtained with conventional fat-saturated SPGR imaging. Compared with fat-saturated SPGR, IDEAL-SPGR imaging combined with parallel imaging at 3 T provides robust fat-water separation and significant improvement in cartilage SNR. Use of IDEAL-SPGR also led to dramatic improvement in cartilage-fluid contrast-to-noise ratio compared with fat-saturated SPGR imaging. Thus, use of IDEAL-SPGR may improve the accuracy of cartilage volume measurements and detection of cartilage surface defects. Excellent evaluation of the morphologic features of the knee cartilage with high-resolution, high-SNR images can be performed in 5 minutes.