Riccardo Lattanzi1, 2, Catherine Petchprapa1, Daniele Ascani1, Roy I. Davidovitch3, Thomas Youm3, Robert J. Meislin3, Michael Recht1
1Radiology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, United States; 2The Bernard and Irene Schwartz Center for Biomedical Imaging, New York University Medical Center, New York, NY, United States; 3Orthopedic Surgery, New York University Hospital for Joint Diseases, New York, NY, United States
Early diagnosis of articular cartilage degeneration is critical to the success of corrective surgical procedures for patients with femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). Delayed Gadolinium-Enhanced MRI of Cartilage (dGEMRIC) can detect early biochemical changes in articular cartilage. In this work we validated the technique for the hip at 3 T against intra-operative findings, using radial imaging planes and a method to standardize dGEMRIC measurements, in order to remove the effect of inter- and intra-patient variability. Sensitivity, specificity and accuracy were 86%, 55% and 73% for dGEMRIC, and 59%, 61% and 60% for morphologic evaluation, using corresponding proton-density-weighted radial images.