With the incidence of arthritis and other musculoskeletal diseases set to double in the next two decades, clinicians will welcome new quantitative 3T MRI strategies for assessing cartilage and chondral lesions.
With the incidence of arthritis and other musculoskeletal diseases set to double in the next two decades, clinicians will welcome new quantitative 3T MRI strategies for assessing cartilage and chondral lesions.
Two approaches have shown progress, said Dr. Bruce Forster, an associate professor of radiology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. One involves T2 mapping sequences that can evaluate the integrity and orientation of a collagen network. The other is a T1/T2 delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI of cartilage (dGEMRIC). It is sensitive to changes in the proteoglycan content of cartilage, he said.
A multicenter study by European researchers demonstrated that T2 mapping performed on a 3T scanner can monitor the success of autologous cartilage transplantation (Invest Radiol 2007;42[6]:442-448). A separate study by Finnish researchers concluded that the combination of T2 mapping and T2 dGEMRIC imaging may be better than either approach alone for tracking cartilage repair (Osteoarthritis Cartilage 2007;15[4]:372-378).
"Our lab is assessing a commercial product for its utility in cartilage imaging, which can be read quickly and easily coregistered with anatomic images." Forster said.
FDA Clears Virtually Helium-Free 1.5T MRI System from Siemens Healthineers
June 26th 2025Offering a cost- and resource-saving DryCool magnet technology, the Magnetom Flow.Ace MRI system reportedly requires 0.7 liters of liquid helium for cooling over the lifetime of the device in contrast to over 1,000 liters commonly utilized with conventional MRI platforms.
Multinational Study Reaffirms Value of Adjunctive AI for Prostate MRI
June 16th 2025The use of adjunctive AI in biparametric prostate MRI exams led to 3.3 percent and 3.4 percent increases in the AUC and specificity, respectively, for clinically significant prostate cancer (csPCa) in a 360-person cohort drawn from 53 facilities.
Study: AI-Generated ADC Maps from MRI More Than Double Specificity in Prostate Cancer Detection
June 5th 2025Emerging research showed that AI-generated ADC mapping from MRI led to significant increases in accuracy, PPV and specificity in comparison to conventional ADC mapping while achieving a 93 percent sensitivity for PCa.