Richard Kijowski1,
Jessica Klaers2, Kenneth Lee1, Humberto Rosas1,
Larry Hernandez2, Walter Block2,3
1Radiology,
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA; 2Medical Physics,
University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA; 3Biomedical
Engineering, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
The study was performed to compare SNR, CNR, and subjective criteria of image quality of VIPR-ATR and currently used three-dimensional MR sequences for evaluating the articular cartilage of the knee joint. VIPR-ATR produced multi-planar images of the knee joint with 0.4 mm isotropic resolution in 5 minutes and 0.3 mm isotropic resolution in 8 minutes which were well suited for evaluating articular cartilage. VIPR-ATR had high cartilage SNR and high CNR between cartilage and adjacent joint structure. On subjective analysis, VIPR-ATR had the highest rank for tissue contrast, clarity of articular surface, cartilage lesion conspicuity, and overall image quality.