Goetz Hannes
Welsch1,2, Tallal Charles Mamisch3, Lukas Zak4,
Andreas Mauerer2, Sebastian Apprich1, Michael Deimling5,
Stefan Marlovits4, Siegfried Trattnig1
1MR Center, Department of Radiology,
Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; 2Department of
Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, University Hospital of Erlangen, Erlangen,
Germany; 3Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, University of Basel,
Basel, Switzerland; 4Center for Joints and Cartilage, Department
of Trauma Surgery, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; 5Siemens
Healthcare, Erlangen, Germany
The
aim of this study was to use a recently described double-echo at steady-state
(DESS-T2d) approach in an initial study to assess the morphological
Magnetic-resonance Observation of Cartilage Repair Tissue (MOCART) score as
well as biochemical T2-values in patients after matrix-associated autologous
chondrocyte transplantation of the knee by only one sequence. The results
show a good correlation in between standard morphological and multi-echo
spin-echo quantitative T2 and the new DESS-T2d approach. Hence the presented
hybrid sequence provides the possibility to combine morphological and
biochemical MRI in one fast 3D-sequence and thus may attract for the clinical
use of biochemical MRI.