Facilitating cartilage volume measurement using MRI

Purpose: To compare quantitative cartilage volume measurement (CVM) using different slice thicknesses. Materials and methods: Ten knees were scanned with a 1.5 T MRI (Sonata, Siemens, Erlangen, Germany) using a 3D gradient echo sequence (FLASH, fast low-angle shot). Cartilage volume of the medial and lateral tibial plateau was measured by two independent readers in 1.5 mm, 3.0 mm and 5.0 mm slices using the Argus (R) software application. Accuracy and time effectiveness served as control parameters. Results: Determining cartilage volume, time for calculation diminished for the lateral tibial plateau from 384.6 perpendicular to 127.7 s and 379.1 perpendicular to 117.6 s to 214.9 perpendicular to 109.9 s and 213.9 perpendicular to 102.2 s to 122.1 perpendicular to 60.1 s and 126.8 perpendicular to 56.2 s and for themedial tibial plateau from 465.0 +/- 147.7 s and 461.8 +/- 142.7 s to 214.0 +/- 67.9 s and 208.9 +/- 66.2 s to 132.6 +/- 41.5 s and 130.6 +/- 42.0 s measuring 1.5 mm, 3 mm and 5 mm slices, respectively. No statistically significant difference between cartilage volume measurements was observed (p > 0.05) while very good inter-reader correlation was evaluated. Conclusion: CVM using 1.5 mm slices provides no higher accuracy than cartilage volume measurement in 5 mm slices while an overall time saving up to 70% is possible. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.