Short-Term Reproducibility of Bilateral Quantitative Double Echo in Steady State T2 Mapping of Hip Cartilage

Motivation: T2 relaxation times are sensitive to cartilage degeneration with osteoarthritis, where small changes are associated with progression. The qDESS sequence offers an SNR-efficient and accurate approach to study T2 values but has yet to be evaluated in hips. Goal(s): This work evaluated repeatability of a bilateral qDESS sequence for hip cartilage T2 analysis. Approach: Repeatability of femoral and acetabular cartilage T2 values were compared for scans repeated within the same session and 1 week. Results: Scan-rescan and 1-week repeatability are high and comparable to results in the knee, suggesting qDESS provides a precise method for studying hip T2 values. Impact: This work evaluates the repeatability of qDESS in the hip, improving the ability of cartilage T2 imaging to be incorporated into studies of hip cartilage microstructure and osteoarthritis.