Precision of tibial cartilage morphometry with a coronal water-excitation MR sequence

The aim of this study was to analyze the precision of tibial cartilage morphometry, by using a coronal water-excitation sequence with high spatial resolution,to compare the reproducibility of 3D thickness vs volume estimates, and to test the technique patients with severe osteoarthritis. The tibiae of 8 healthy volunteers and 3 patients selected for total knee arthroplasty were imaged repeatedly with a water-excitation sequence (image time 6 h 19 min, resolution 1.2 x 0.31 x 0.31 mm(3)), with the knee being repositioned between each replicate acquisition. er 3D reconstruction, the cartilage volume, the mean and the maximal tibial cartilage thickness determined by:3D Euclidean distance transformation. In the volunteers, the precision of the volume measurements was 2.3% (CV%) in the medial and in the lateral tibia. The reproducibility of the mean cartilage thickness was similar (2.6 and 2.5%, respectively), and that of the maximal thickness lower (6.5 and 4.4%). The patients showed a considerable function in volume and thickness, the precision comparable with that in the volunteers. We find using a new imaging protocol and computational algorithm, it is possible to determine tibial cartilage morphometry with high precision in healthy individuals as in patients with osteoarthritis.