Mike Notohamiprodjo1, Annie Horng1, Matthias Pietschmann2, Wilhelm Horger3, Karin A. Herrmann1, Jaeseok Park3, Jose Garcia del Olmo Raya1, Maximilian F. Reiser1, Christian Glaser1
1Institute for Clinical Radiology, University Hospitals Munich, Munich, Bavaria, Germany; 2Department of Orthopedics, University Hospitals Munich, Munich, Bavaria, Germany; 3Siemens Medical Solutions, Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany
The purpose of this study was to technically and clinically evaluate knee-MRI at 3T with an highly-resolved isotropic fat-saturated(fs) proton-density-weighted(PDw) 3D-TSE-sequence. Ten healthy volunteers and 60 patients with meniscus- and cartilage-pathologies were examined with a PDw-fs-3D-TSE-sequence (voxel-size 0,533m3) with consecutive 3D-reconstruction. SNR, CNR, SNR-efficiency, detection of signal abnormalities and diagnostic confidence were compared to state-of-the-art 2D-TSE-sequences (voxel-size 0,362x0,3mmm3). The 3D-TSE-sequence provided excellent SNR-efficiency and adequate SNR and CNR. Detection and visualization of meniscus- and cartilage-pathologies was at least comparable to 2D-TSE-sequences. Correlation between both sequences was excellent. 3D-TSE-sequences with consecutive 3D-reconstruction may therefore become a valuable component of future knee-MRI-protocols.