Abstract #0057

Du J, Bydder M, Takahashi A, Shimakawa A, Brittain J, Bydder G

Magnetic resonance imaging has been used not only to detect changes in cartilage morphology, but also to quantify T1 and T2 which reflect changes in biochemical composition of cartilage with early osteoarthritis (OA). We present a multislice multiecho ultrashort TE (UTE) imaging pulse sequence which combines half pulse excitation and radial sampling. The initial echo time was 8 usec, followed by 11 echoes with an echo space of 5 msec. T2* maps were generated from the multiecho images using exponential fitting.