• Bernd Bittersohl, Harish S Hosalkar, Malte Sondern, Falk R Miese, Gerald Antoch, Rüdiger Krauspe, and Christoph Zilkens.
• Medical Faculty, Department of Orthopaedics, University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany, bbittersohl@partners.org.
• Skeletal Radiol. 2014 Apr 1; 43 (4): 443-52.

ObjectiveTo establish baseline T2* values in healthy knee joint cartilage at 3 T.Materials And MethodsThirty-four volunteers (mean age: 24.6 ± 2.7 years) with no history or clinical findings indicative of any knee joint disease were enrolled. The protocol included a double-echo steady-state (DESS) sequence for morphological cartilage evaluation and a gradient-echo multi-echo sequence for T2* assessment. Bulk and zonal T2* values were assessed in eight regions: posterior lateral femoral condyle; central lateral femoral condyle; trochlea; patella; lateral tibial plateau; posterior medial femoral condyle; central medial femoral condyle; and medial tibial plateau. Statistical evaluation comprised a two-tailed t test and a one-way analysis of variance to identify zonal and regional differences.ResultsT2* mapping revealed higher T2* values in the superficial zone in all regions (P values ≤ 0.001) except for the posterior medial femur condyle (P = 0.087), and substantial regional differences demonstrating superior values in trochlear cartilage, intermediate values in patellar and central femoral condylar cartilage, and low T2* values in posterior femoral condylar cartilage and tibial plateau cartilage.ConclusionSubstantial regional differences in T2* measures should be taken into consideration when conducting T2* mapping of knee joint cartilage.

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