Use of a Dual-Echo Fast-Spin-Echo Sequence for T2 Mapping of Cartilage Within a Clinical Trial

Jonathan Karl Riek¹, Edward A. Ashton¹

T2 mapping has become a common method for analyzing the quality of cartilage tissue using MRI. The relationship between the collagen content of cartilage and the associated T2 relaxation time of the tissue has been studied extensively. The goal of this paper is to show the applicability of a dual-echo fast-spin-echo sequence within a clinical trial for T2 mapping of cartilage. The proposed sequence proves to be accurate for calculating T2 values in the range of 30 to 60ms, but increasingly inaccurate for longer T2 values. Therefore, it is an appropriate sequence for T2 mapping of cartilage.