• Azadeh Sharafi, Marcelo V W Zibetti, Gregory Chang, Martijn Cloos, and Ravinder R Regatte.
• Bernard and Irene Schwartz Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
• Magn Reson Med. 2020 Nov 1; 84 (5): 2636-2644.

PurposeTo implement a novel technique for simultaneous, quantitative multiparametric mapping of the knee articular cartilage.MethodsA novel MR fingerprinting pulse sequence is proposed and implemented for simultaneous measurements of proton density, T1 , T2, and T1 ρ relaxation times at 3T. The repeatability and reproducibility of the proposed technique were assessed in model phantoms. Institutional review board-approved MR fingerprinting imaging sequence was performed on healthy volunteers and patients with mild knee osteoarthritis. The Wilcoxon test was used to compare healthy controls and patients. The intra- and intersubject repeatability were assessed with coefficient of variation and the RMS coefficient of variation, respectively RESULTS: The Bland-Altman plots demonstrated an average difference of 4.67 ms, -0.09 ms, and 0.05 ms between 2 scans in the same scanner; and 9.68 ms, 0.29 ms, and -0.72 ms between the scans acquired on 2 different scanners for T1 , T2 , and T1 ρ , respectively. The in vivo knee study showed excellent repeatability with RMS coefficient of variation less than 3%, 6%, and 5% for T1 , T2 , and T1 ρ , respectively. The Wilcoxon test showed a significant difference between control and mild osteoarthritis patients for T1 (P = .04), T2 (P = .01), and T1 ρ (P = .02) relaxation time in medial tibial cartilage, as well as for T2 relaxation time (P = .02) in medial femoral cartilage.ConclusionThe proposed MRF sequence is fast and can simultaneously measure the T1 , T2 , T1 ρ , and B 1 + maps in a single scan. It is able to discriminate between mild osteoarthritis patients and healthy volunteers.© 2020 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.

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