Guillaume Madelin1, James Babb1, Ding Xia1, Gregory Chang1, Alexej Jerschow2, Ravinder R. Regatte1
1Radiology Department, New York University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States; 2Chemistry Department, New York University, New York, NY, United States
Quantitative sodium MRI is highly specific to glycosaminoglycan content and could be used to assess the biochemical degradation of cartilage in early stages of osteoarthritis. The aim of this study is to assess the reproducibility and repeatability for sodium quantification in cartilage in vivo using intra-day and inter-day acquisitions at 3T and 7T, with a 3D radial sequence, with and without fluid suppression. The measured RMS CV are in the range 7-14%, therefore the repeatability and reproducibility CV of sodium quantification using sodium MRI compare favorably with the CV of other proton-based MRI techniques (T2 map, T1rho map, dGEMRIC).