MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING SEQUENCE ANALYSIS OF TIBIOFEMORAL CONTACT AREA ASSISTED BY MATLAB SOFTWARE

Abstract

The objective of this study is to find the suitable MRI sequence for a tibiofemoral contact area study assisted by MATLAB software. An MRI image’s color contrast quality and optimal scanning time are the optimized parameters. The hypothesis of this study is that the protocol sequence bonding with the fastest scanning time should have greatest efficiency error. Three healthy subjects’ knees were scanned in the prone position under Turbo Spin Echo (TSE), Fast Field Echo (FFE) and Steady State Free Precision (SSFP) sequences. A total 34 slices was acquired for each sequence, each slices being 2-mm thick and a 0.2-mm gap between slices. The results of the analysis revealed that the FFE and the SSFP sequences resulted in additional 8.17% and 14.26% efficiency error of contact area between the femoral cartilage and the meniscus, respectively. Those errors were even greater in the contact area between the femoral and the tibial cartilages, where the FFE sequence estimated the error at about 19.82%, whereas for the SSFP sequence, the extra contact area measured about 22.89%. All calculation percentages were relative to the TSE sequence. It is suggested that the TSE sequence is a suitable MRI sequence for this study, due to its excellent image color contrast intensity and clocked optimal scanning time.