• Ligong Wang, Gregory Chang, Jenny Bencardino, James S Babb, Andrew Rokito, Laith Jazrawi, Orrin Sherman, and Ravinder R Regatte.
• Quantitative Multinuclear Musculoskeletal Imaging Group (QMMIG), Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, New York, University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, USA; School of Radiation Medicine and Protection, Medical College of Soochow University; School for Radiological and Interdisciplinary Sciences (RAD-X), Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China.
• J Magn Reson Imaging. 2015 Feb 1; 41 (2): 544-9.

PurposeTo explore the feasibility of T1rho mapping of menisci at 3T in discriminating between patients with acute anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and healthy controls.Materials And MethodsThirty-three subjects were included in the study and subdivided into two subgroups: 16 healthy controls (4 females, 12 males; mean age = 34.4 ± 10.2 years, age range 24-63 years), 17 patients with ACL injury (3 females, 14 males; mean age = 29.8 ± 10.8 years, age range 18-61 years). T1rho images from all subjects were acquired on a 3T MR scanner using a spin-lock-based 3D GRE sequence and computed for T1rho mapping. Clinical proton density (PD)-weighted fast spin echo (FSE) images in the sagittal (without fat saturation), axial, and coronal (fat-saturated) planes were also acquired for cartilage assessment using Whole-Organ MR Imaging Score (WORMS) grading. Mixed model two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to determine whether there were any significant differences among subregional, compartmental, and whole structure T1rho values of meniscus between healthy controls and ACL-injured patients.ResultsLateral posterior (29 ± 8 msec) and medial central (25 ± 7 msec) meniscus subregions in healthy controls had significantly lower T1rho values (P < 0.05) than the corresponding meniscus subregions in ACL-injured patients. Significantly lower meniscus T1rho values (P < 0.05) were also identified in lateral compartment in healthy controls (26 ± 6 msec) than that of ACL-injured patients (33 ± 4 msec). Subjects' total WORMS between healthy controls and ACL-injured patients had significant differences (P < 0.05).ConclusionsThese preliminary results indicate that T1rho mapping is possibly feasible in detecting meniscus degeneration and may be useful in distinguishing ACL-injured patients.© 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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