Qualitative and quantitative assessment of isotropic ankle magnetic resonance imaging: three-dimensional isotropic intermediate-weighted turbo spin echo versus three-dimensional isotropic fast field echo sequences.
OBJECTIVE
To compare the image quality of volume isotropic turbo spin echo acquisition (VISTA) imaging method with that of the three-dimensional (3D) isotropic fast field echo (FFE) imaging method applied for ankle joint imaging.


METHODS
MR imaging of the ankles of 10 healthy volunteers was performed with VISTA and 3D FFE sequences by using a 3.0 T machine. Two radiologists retrospectively assessed the tissue contrast between fluid and cartilage (F-C), and fluid and the Achilles tendon (F-T) with use of a 4-point scale. For a quantitative analysis, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) was obtained by imaging phantom, and the contrast ratios (CRs) were calculated between F-T and F-C. Statistical analyses for differences in grades of tissue contrast and CRs were performed.


RESULTS
VISTA had significantly superior grades in tissue contrast of F-T (p = 0.001). Results of 3D FFE had superior grades in tissue contrast of F-C, but these result were not statistically significant (p = 0.157). VISTA had significantly superior CRs in F-T (p = 0.002), and 3D FFE had superior CRs in F-C (p = 0.003). The SNR of VISTA was higher than that of 3D FFE (49.24 vs. 15.94).


CONCLUSIONS
VISTA demonstrates superior tissue contrast between fluid and the Achiles tendon in terms of quantitative and qualitative analysis, while 3D FFE shows superior tissue contrast between fluid and cartilage in terms of quantitative analysis.
Department of Radiology, Samsung Medical Center, School of Medicine, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul 135-710, Korea.
Hyun Su
HS
Kim
Young Cheol
YC
Yoon
Jong Won
JW
Kwon
Bong-Keun
BK
Choe
D000125:Achilles Tendon / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D000328:Adult; D000843:Ankle Joint / Q000033:anatomy & histology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric