T1rho MRI of Menisci & Cartilage in Osteoarthritic Patients at 3T

Ligong Wang¹, Gregory Chang¹, Jian Xu², Renata L. R. Vieira¹, Svetlana Krasnokutsky³, Steven Abramson³, Michael P. Recht¹, Ravinder R. Regatte¹

The purpose of this study was to assess T1rho values of cartilage and menisci in patients with osteoarthritis (OA) at 3T. Subjects with varying degrees of OA (K-L Score = 1-4, n = 30) were scanned. Statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) were identified between cartilage T1rho values of moderate-severe OA subjects in the lateral femoral anterior sub-compartment and doubtful-minimal OA subjects in the lateral and medial compartments. There were statistically significant differences in meniscus T1rho values of the medial posterior sub-region of subjects with moderate-severe OA and all sub-regions in the lateral and medial compartments of subjects with doubtful-minimal OA. Meniscus and cartilage T1rho values correlate with conventional MR findings of different degrees of degeneration.