3D magnetic resonance fingerprinting for rapid simultaneous T1, T2, and T1ρ volumetric mapping of human articular cartilage at 3 T

Quantitative MRI can detect early biochemical changes in cartilage; however, the conventional techniques only measure one parameter (e.g., T-1, T-2, and T-1 rho) at a time while also being comparatively slow. We implemented a 3D magnetic resonance fingerprinting (3D-MRF) technique for simultaneous, volumetric mapping of T-1, T-2, and T-1 rho in knee articular cartilage in under 9 min. It is evaluated on 11 healthy volunteers (mean age: 53 +/- 9 years), five mild knee osteoarthritis (OA) patients (Kellgren-Lawrence (KL) score: 2, mean age: 60 +/- 4 years), and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)/International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) system phantom. Proton density image, and T-1, T-2,T- T-1 rho relaxation times, and B-1(+) were estimated in the NIST/ISMRM system phantom as well as in the human knee medial and lateral femur, medial and lateral tibia, and patellar cartilage. The repeatability and reproducibility of the proposed technique were assessed in the phantom using analysis of the Bland-Altman plots. The intrasubject repeatability was assessed with the coefficient of variation (CV) and root mean square CV (rmsCV). The Mann-Whitney U test was used to assess the difference between healthy subjects and mild knee OA patients. The Bland-Altman plots in the NIST/ISMRM phantom demonstrated an average difference of 0.001% +/- 015%, 1.2% +/- 7.1%, and 0.47% +/- 3% between two scans from the same 3-T scanner (repeatability), and 0.002% +/- 015%, 0.62% +/- 10.5%, and 0.97% +/- 14% between the scans acquired on two different 3-T scanners (reproducibility) for T-1, T-2, and T-1 rho, respectively. The in vivo knee study showed excellent repeatability with rmsCV less than 1%, 2%, and 1% for T-1, T-2, and T-1 rho, respectively. T-1 rho relaxation time in the mild knee OA patients was significantly higher (p < 0.05) than in healthy subjects. The proposed 3D-MRF sequence is fast, reproducible, robust to B-1(+) inhomogeneity, and can simultaneously measure the T-1, T-2, T-1 rho, and B-1(+) volumetric maps of the knee joint in a single scan within a clinically feasible scan time.