Prospective comparison of 3D FIESTA versus fat-suppressed 3D SPGR MRI in evaluating knee cartilage lesions.
OBJECTIVE
To prospectively compare the accuracy of three-dimensional fast imaging employing steady-state acquisition (3D FIESTA) sequences with that of fat-suppressed three-dimensional spoiled gradient-recalled (3D SPGR) in the diagnosis of knee articular cartilage lesions, using arthroscopy as the reference standard.


METHODS
Fifty-eight knees in 54 patients (age range 21-82 years; mean 36 years) were prospectively evaluated by using sagittal 3D FIESTA and sagittal fat-suppressed 3D SPGR sequences. Articular cartilage lesions were graded on MRI and during arthroscopy with a modified Noyes scoring system. Sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were assessed. Interobserver agreement was determined with kappa statistics.


RESULTS
The performance of 3D FIESTA sequences (sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 80, 94, and 92%, respectively, for reader 1 and 76, 94, and 90%, respectively, for reader 2) was similar to that of fat-suppressed 3D SPGR sequences (sensitivity, specificity, and accuracy were 82, 92, and 90%, respectively, for reader 1 and 82, 90, and 88%, respectively, for reader 2) in the detection of knee articular cartilage lesions. The interobserver agreement varied from fair to good to excellent (kappa values from 0.43-0.83).


CONCLUSIONS
3D FIESTA has good diagnostic performance, comparable with fat-suppressed 3D SPGR in evaluating knee cartilage lesions, and it can be incorporated into routine knee MRI protocols due to the short acquisition time.
Li
X
X
Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430030, China.
Yu
C
C
Wu
H
H
Daniel
K
K
Hu
D
D
Xia
L
L
Pan
C
C
Xu
A
A
Hu
J
J
Wang
L
L
Peng
W
W
Li
F
F
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001182:Arthroscopy; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015588:Observer Variation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D055815:Young Adult