For patellar tendon (PT), anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) of the knee joint, the in vivo application of the bound and free water mapping techniques is still limited. In this study, we aimed to develop 3D multi-echo fat saturated ultrashort echo time Cones (3D FS-UTE-Cones) imaging protocol for fast volumetric mapping of free and bound water components of whole knee joints in a clinical 3T scanner. The results showed that, for PT, PCL and ACL, the short and long T2* components and their fractions can be characterized by 3D FS-UTE-Cones acquisitions with bi-component T2* analysis, accompanying with superior resolution and short scanning time.
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