Ultrafast T2 mapping of knee articular cartilage under compression using a radial turbo-spin-echo sequence at 3T - initial results

Quantitative T2 maps have been used for more than a decade in musculoskeletal MR research as a tool for cartilage assessment. In this work, we compared T2 mapping of knee cartilage with ultrafast radial turbo-spin-echo sequence to conventional multi-echo spin echo sequence. We used radial turbo-spin-echo T2 maps to track dynamic changes in knee cartilage during compression. Correlation between the two methods was found in multiple cartilage regions. Dynamic change in T2 values was observable on T2 maps during first two minutes of compression. We demonstrated that radial-TSE sequence allows for fast determination of T2 values of the knee cartilage.