Water proton $$$R_2$$$ relaxation in cartilage at 3T contains both an isotropic and an anisotropic contributions, with the latter being more sensitive to degenerative changes. A composite relaxation ($$$R_2-R_{1ρ}$$$) mapping could be used to separate two contributions; however, its lengthy protocol had prevented it from being adopted in clinical applications. Here, we propose an efficient alternative based on a single T2W sagittal image to isolate an anisotropic $$$R_2$$$ and compare it with $$$R_2-R_{1ρ}$$$ on five live human knees. The comparable results demonstrate that the developed method could be easily used in clinical studies to characterize anisotropic $$$R_2$$$ of articular cartilage.
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