Healthy Knee Cartilage T2 Relaxation properties at 0.55T using Radial TSE approach: A comparison with 3.0T MAPSS

Motivation: Baseline healthy-knee-cartilage reference comparisons across 0.55T and 3.0T can be utilized for comparing healthy to diseased cartilage in early-to-moderate OA at 0.55T. Goal(s): To compute and compare T2-baseline relaxation time measurements of healthy knee cartilage obtained at 0.55T using Radial-TSE approach with 3.0T using MAPSS, paired with DL-based cartilage segmentation. Approach: Phantom and Healthy Knee-cartilage-compartmental T2 relaxation values are compared using Exp2 and Sepg3 approaches with Radial TSE at 0.55T and 3.0T MAPSS. Results: We demonstrated healthy knee cartilage reference T2-values at 0.55T using Radial-TSE. Average T2-increase from 3.0T to 0.55T yields a wider range for detecting voxel-by-voxel granular changes of the cartilage. Impact: Baseline healthy-knee-cartilage reference Radial-TSE-T2 at 0.55T and T2-MAPSS-3.0T comparisons can be utilized for assessing healthy and diseased cartilage in early-to-moderate OA at 0.55T. Research findings at 3.0T could be translated at low-field economic scanners with a wider range of early-detection.