Comparison of Two MRI-UTE Sequences for the Quantification (T1) of the Human Achilles Tendon

Peter Wright¹, Richard Hodgson², Vladimir Jellus³, Lars Lauer³, Matthew Robson⁴

The Achilles tendon is commonly involved in degenerative and inflammatory tendinopathies. The aim was to compare T₁ measurements in healthy human Achilles tendon using a saturation recovery (SR-) UTE and variable flip angle (VFA-) UTE sequence, which were initially corroborated in phantoms with an assumed gold standard inversion recovery spin echo (IR-SE) sequence. Phantom results showed good comparison between IR-SE and SR-UTE sequences (r² = 0.9985 [p<0.02]) and IR-SE and VFA-UTE sequences (r² = 0.9993 [p<0.01]). Healthy volunteer T₁ measurements in the Achilles tendon were 725 42 ms and 698 54 ms for SR- and VFA-UTE sequences respectively.