Comparison of UTE-T1ρ vs. MAPSS-T1ρ Sequences in In-Vivo Knees

The relative accuracy of an ultrashort echo time (UTE) based T1ρ sequence was compared to a MAPSS based T1ρ sequence in the evaluation of articular cartilage. Scanning with similar parameters between the acquisitions was performed, producing similar T1ρ values in all cartilage sub-compartments except for the femoral trochlea (TrF). TrF MAPSS-T1ρ values were shorter than TrF UTE-T1ρ values (10.91% difference, p = 0.0028). Overall, there was reasonable agreement between the two sequences indicating that UTE-T1ρ may be a promising method to use in place of conventional MAPSS sequences to quantify T1ρ values of articular cartilage.