Carl Siversson1, Jenny Chan2,
Carl Johan Tiderius3, Tallal Charles Mamisch4, Jonas
Svensson1, Young Jo Kim2
1Department of Radiation
Physics, Lund University, Malm, Sweden; 2Department of
Orthopaedics, Children's Hospital Boston, Boston, MA, United States; 3Department
of Orthopaedics, Lund University, Malm, Sweden; 4Department of
Orthopaedics, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
3D Variable Flip Angle (3D-VFA) is a T1 quantification method commonly used in delayed Gadolinium enhanced MRI of cartilage (dGEMRIC). Since 3D-VFA is sensitive to B1 variations a technique for correcting for this was recently introduced. In this work 15 hips were studied at 1.5T and 15 hips at 3T using this technique. The T1 data was calculated both with and without utilizing the B1 correction. It was concluded that B1 inhomogeneities in vivo are about twice as high at 3T compared to 1.5T. At 3T B1 correction is essential, while at 1.5T it appears to be of minor influence.