Synthetic MRI is not yet ready for morphologic and functional assessment of patellar cartilage at 1.5 Tesla

• Synthetic MRI acquisitions help decrease examination time compared to conventional sequences. yields more motion artifacts and less spatial resolution MRI. shows lower diagnostic performance for early patellar cartilage chondropathy Mean T2 values are systematically overestimated on synthetic The purpose of this study was compare morphologic assessment relaxometry hyaline between sequences (fast spin-echo [FSE] T2-weighted fat-saturated T2-mapping) short-TI inversion recovery (STIR) maps at 1.5 T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). examinations the knee obtained in 49 consecutive patients were retrospectively studied. There 21 men 28 women with a mean age 45 ± 17.7 (SD) years (range: 18–88 years). Conventional performed, including T2-mapping Two radiologists independently T2-relaxation images. A third radiologist evaluated morphology presence also assessed. Interobserver agreement quantitative variables assessed using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). In vitro, yielded similar 58.5 2.3 ms 58.8 2.6 ms, respectively ( P = 0.414) 6% than expected experimental 0.038). images allowed 15% reduction On sequences, identified 35 (35/49; 71%) grade 4.8 (SD). images, (28/49; 57%) diagnosed chondropathy, significant 14% difference 0.009) scores (3.7 4.9 [SD]) Motion frequently observed (18%) ones (6%). interobserver excellent both (ICC > 0.83). significantly greater (36.2 3.8 [SD] ms; range: 29-46 ms) relative (31.8 4.1 26-49 < 0.0001). Despite duration, convey prevalence artifacts, an overestimation