Nade Sritanyaratana1, Alexey Samsonov2,
Samuel A. Hurley3, Kevin M. Johnson2, Pouria Mossahebi1,
Walter F. Block1,3, Richard Kijowski2
1Biomedical Engineering,
University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 2Radiology,
University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 3Medical
Physics, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Madison, WI, United States
Longitudinal osteoarthritis (OA) research studies require non-invasive contrast mechanisms to observe disease progression. Since articular cartilage has a high macromolecular concentration consisting primarily of collagen and proteoglycan, quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) could be sensitive to its macromolecular content and structure. However, given the constraints of cost and patient tolerance, MR examination times in OA research studies are generally limited to only 30 to 45 minutes. As qMT requires the acquisition of multiple MT-weighted images, extremely long scan times are a limitation. We investigate methods for qMT imaging of the entire human patellofemoral joint in less than 30 minutes.