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Comparative Study
. 2014 Apr;39(4):972-7.
doi: 10.1002/jmri.24217. Epub 2013 Oct 7.

Quantitative measurement of femoral condyle cartilage in the knee by MRI: validation study by multireaders

Yasunari Fujinaga  1 , Hiroshi Yoshioka, Toshinori Sakai, Yoko Sakai, Felipe Souza, Philipp Lang
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Quantitative measurement of femoral condyle cartilage in the knee by MRI: validation study by multireaders

Yasunari Fujinaga et al. J Magn Reson Imaging. 2014 Apr.

Abstract

Purpose: To determine reproducibility of the femoral condyle cartilage volume (CV) in cross-sectional and longitudinal studies using various 3D imaging techniques at 1.5 T and 3 T.

Materials and methods: In 21 subjects with osteoarthritis, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) including four different sequences (sagittal 3D fat suppressed spoiled gradient-echo [SPGR] at 1.5 T, fat suppressed fast low angle shot [FLASH] at 3 T, water-excitation dual echo steady state [DESS] at 3 T, and water-excitation multiecho data image combination [MEDIC] at 3 T) were acquired at baseline and ∼1 year later. The CV measured using semiautomated segmentation software by three readers was analyzed.

Results: The mean of the interclass correlation coefficient between each reader from SPGR, FLASH, DESS, and MEDIC was 0.899, 0.948, 0.943, and 0.954, respectively. The mean CV (×10(4) mm(3) ) measured by each reader from SPGR/FLASH/DESS/MEDIC sequences was the following in this order: 1.34/1.52/1.50/1.35, 1.21/1.43/1.40/1.27, 1.22/1.37/1.36/1.22, and 1.17/1.36/1.35/1.21 by readers 1, 2, 3 (first analysis), and 3 (second analysis), respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in CV between any readers in any sequences. The CV measured on FLASH and DESS tended to be greater than that on SPGR or MEDIC.

Conclusion: Inter- and intraobserver reproducibility of cartilage segmentation using semiautomated software was validated. Although there was no statistical significance, there was a tendency of under- or overestimating CV by each sequence.

Keywords: knee cartilage; magnetic resonance imaging; reproducibility; segmentation.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Examples of segmentation of the femoral condyle cartilage. a: fat-suppressed 3D spoiled gradient-echo sequence (SPGR) at 1.5T. b: fat-suppressed fast low angle shot (FLASH) at 3T. c: water-excitation double-echo steady-state (DESS) at 3T. d: water-excitation multi-echo data image combination (MEDIC) at 3T. The segmentation area of cartilage is shown in a red line on each image.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overall mean and standard deviation of femoral condyle cartilage volume measured on each sequence. **, P<0.01; ***, P<0.001.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic images of the femoral condyle cartilage segmentation on (a) thin and (b) thick slice images. The area of underestimation on thick slice images (gray area) is larger than that on thin slice images.
Figure 4
Figure 4
A 57-year old woman. a: On fat-suppressed 3D SPGR at 1.5T, a linear area of marked high signal intensity in deep zone adjacent to subchondral bone of the femoral condyle (arrows) is seen with resultant unclear contour of the knee cartilage. b: Fat-suppressed FLASH at 3T demonstrates similar but lesser degree of a linear area of high signal intensity in deep zone adjacent to subchondral bone of the femoral condyle with unclear contour of the knee cartilage (arrow heads).
Figure 5
Figure 5
A 57-year old woman (same case in figure 4). a: On water-excitation DESS at 3T, there is no band-like low intensity in the knee cartilage. b: On water-excitation MEDIC at 3T, a band-like low signal intensity along the cartilage surface over the femoral condyle is clearly seen (arrows).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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