Long-Term and Short-Term Reproducibility of T2 Relaxation Time in Human Knee Cartilage

Eveliina Lammentausta¹, Ilkka Hannila¹, Osmo Tervonen^1,2, Miika T. Nieminen^1,2

he reproducibility of T2 relaxation time measurement in the femur, tibia and patella was investigated. The measurement session was repeated three times for nine healthy volunteers, and to calculate the short-term reproducibility, the measurement was repeated three times within a single session for four of the volunteers. Reproducibility was calculated for bulk cartilage at different joint surfaces and for deep and superficial cartilage at different topographical locations. The results were good, mean reproducibility being 4.1% long-time and 3.7% short-time for bulk, and 6.6% for smaller regions, both long-term and short-term.