A B1-insensitive High Resolution 2D T1 Mapping Pulse Sequence for Radial dGEMRIC of the Hip at 3T

Riccardo Lattanzi^1,2, Christian Glaser^1,2, Artem V. Mikheev², Catherine Petchprapa², David J. Mossa², Soterios Gyftopoulos², Henry Rusinek², Michael Recht², Daniel Kim^1,2

Early detection of cartilage degeneration in the hip with dGEMRIC may help prevent osteoarthritis in patients with femoroacetabular impingement. We propose a new high-resolution 2D T₁-mapping saturation-recovery (SR) pulse sequence with FSE readout for dGEMRIC at 3T in radial imaging planes. Our sequence was validated in a phantom and in 10 hips against a rigorous multi-point SR pulse sequence. T₁ measurements by the two sequences were strongly correlated (R² > 0.95) and in excellent agreement (mean difference = -8.7ms; 95% limits of agreement = 64.5 and -81.9ms, respectively). T₁ measurements were insensitive to B₁⁺ variation as large as 20%.