Reproducibility of Magnetic Resonance T1ρ & T2 Relaxation Time & Morphological Measurements of Articular Hip Cartilage at 3T

Alexander Balcar Dillon¹, Gabby Blumenkrantz Joseph¹, Xiaojuan Li¹, Thomas M. Link¹, Sharmila Majumdar¹

We evaluated the reproducibility of cartilage thickness, volume, T_1ρ and T₂ relaxation times, and alpha angle measurements in the hip joint using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging at 3 T. The coefficients of variation for these measurements ranged from 0.3-4.7%, indicating their high level of intra-observer reproducibility and the feasibility of monitoring the morphology and biochemical composition (via relaxometry) of articular hip cartilage with these MR techniques.