Advanced MRI cartilage imaging such as T. 1. -rho
(T1ρ) for the diagnosis of early cartilage degradation prior to morpholgic
radiological changes may provide prognostic information in the management
of joint disease. This study aimed first to determine the normal
T1ρ profile of cartilage within the hip, and secondly to identify
any differences in T1ρ profile between the normal and symptomatic
femoroacetabular impingement (FAI) hip. Ten patients with cam-type
FAI (seven male and three female, mean age 35.9 years (28 to 48))
and ten control patients (four male and six female, mean age 30.6
years (22 to 35)) underwent 1.5T T1ρ MRI of a single hip. Mean T1ρ relaxation
times for full thickness and each of the three equal cartilage thickness
layers were calculated and compared between the groups. The mean
T1ρ
Introduction. Successful joint preservation surgery requires the ability to accurately assess the health of the articular cartilage pre-operatively. Traditional radiological methods allow morphological assessment of the cartilage and therefore only identify those with established degeneration. Biophysical properties of cartilage are now being used to identify these changes occurring earlier in the disease processes. Prior literature states that healthy cartilage has a transverse relaxation time of between 15–60 ms (16). Our study aims to establish the correlation and accuracy of MRI with T2 cartilage mapping with observed intra-operative chondral defects. Methods. We routinely request MRI with T2 mapping on all patients with suspected or confirmed femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). A review was performed on all patients who underwent both pre-operative imaging and subsequent hip arthroscopy for FAI over a 24-month period. Using linear regression we correlated intra-operatively observed chondral defects of the femoral head and acetabulum (Outerbridge classification scores) with the pre-operative transverse
