3D Ultrashort Echo Time MRI for Evaluation of Cartilaginous Endplate of Lumbar Disc In Vivo: Feasibility and Correlation with Disc Degeneration in T2 weighted Spin Echo Sequence

Total 165 discs of 33 patients were imaged with sagittal 3D UTE (TR = 16.1 ms, TE = 0.032 ms and 6.6 ms, echo-subtraction) with 3D cones trajectory technique and conventional sagittal T2 weighted (TR = 3232, TE = 91.4) SE in 3T MRI. Two musculoskeletal radiologists evaluated the CEP abnormalities such as irregularity, thickening, thining, and defects in the 3D UTE with consensus and correlated with the Pfirrmann grading system in the sagittal T2 SE. In result, all of the CEP abnormalities were positively correlated with the Pfirrmann grading system with statistical significance (p < 0.001).