T1rho MRI of Acute Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injured Patients at 3T

Ligong Wang¹, Gregory Chang¹, Jenny T. Bencardino¹, James S. Babb¹, Andrew Rokito², Laith Jazrawi², Orrin Sherman², Ravinder R. Regatte¹

The goal of this study was to assess T1rho values of femorotibial cartilage in acute anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injured patients compared to healthy controls and osteoarthritis (OA) patients at 3T. 53 subjects (16 healthy controls, 17 acute ACL injured patients, and 20 OA patients) were scanned. LFa in ACL injured patients had significantly higher T1rho values (P < 0.05) than whole femorotibial cartilage and all cartilage subregions except LFa in healthy controls. These findings imply that cartilage T1rho mapping may be sensitive in staging femorotibial cartilage disorder among acute ACL injured patients, healthy controls, and OA patients.