Magnetic resonance imaging measurement of knee cartilage volume in a multicentre study

Objective. To investigate the variability between different high-field scanners in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurement of knee cartilage volume in healthy female volunteers. Methods. Five volunteers had both knees scanned using three different MRI scanners. Cartilage volume in each compartment was measured from the images by image segmentation. The data were analysed using analysis of variance models. Results. The mean total cartilage volume of the 10 knees scanned at three different centres was 16.15, 16.40 and 15.63 ml for the Siemens, GE and Philips scanners respectively. Small systematic differences were seen in the total knee cartilage volume results. Conclusions. Although there were small systematic differences in knee cartilage volume, the three MRI scanners gave broadly similar results.