Ernesto Staroswiecki1,2, Neal Kepler
Bangerter3, Garry Evan Gold1, Brian Andrew Hargreaves1
1Radiology, Stanford University,
Stanford, CA, United States; 2Electrical Engineering, Stanford
University, Stanford, CA, United States; 3Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, United States
Early
degenerative changes in human articular cartilage are usually accompanied by
proteoglycan depletion. Sodium MRI has been shown to correlate with
proteoglycan concentration in the tissue. In order to track sodium signal in
cartilage, contributions from synovial fluid should be minimized. Here we
studied the contrast between fluid and cartilage generated by SPGR and
balanced SSFP sequences. We acquired images of phantoms and volunteers at 3T
with both sequences and a range of flip angles. Fluid was significantly
attenuated on SPGR images with a large flip angle when compared with SSFP
data, while the cartilage signal was minimally affected.