Cartilage has a complex structure comprised of multiple zones with different MR signal properties. Among them, osteochondral junction (OCJ) cannot be directly imaged with conventional MR imaging techniques. In this study, we explore the feasibility of inversion recovery prepared fat-saturated zero echo time (IR-FS-ZTE) to image the human knee OCJ. To accentuate the signal from the OCJ region with short T2*, adiabatic inversion recovery along with fat-saturation preparation was applied, followed by continous, slient ZTE imaging. The feasibility and efficacy of IR-FS-ZTE were shown in ex vivo cadaveric human knee joints and in in vivo healthy volunteers.
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