Routine MR examination of the knee using parallel imaging.
OBJECTIVE
To demonstrate the feasibility and the clinical value of parallel imaging of the knee.


METHODS
A pair of flex coils was used for the parallel imaging. Before optimization of the protocol, qualitative and quantitative analysis was performed by volunteer and phantom study. Two separate consecutive groups of 80 patients were examined with or without parallel imaging and compared with the arthroscopic results.


RESULTS
Parallel imaging obtained a total of 164 images of six series in less than 20 min. Compared with conventional imaging, the parallel imaging appeared slightly noisy with an 83% relative signal-to-noise ratio. Demarcation of the cruciate ligaments and menisci were rated equivalent. For the patients study, the parallel imaging delineated ligament and meniscus pathologies with accuracies of over 93%.


CONCLUSIONS
Parallel MR imaging of the knee enables significant reduction of scan time as well as preserving diagnostic results.
Niitsu
M
M
Department of Radiology, Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Tsukuba, Japan. mniitsu@md.tsukuba.ac.jp
Ikeda
K
K
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D007592:Joint Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D008875:Middle Aged; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity