To determine whether synovitis graded by radiologists using hybrid quantitative double-echo in steady-state (qDESS) images can be utilized as a non-contrast approach to assess synovitis in the knee, compared against the reference standard of contrast-enhanced MRI (CE-MRI).
Twenty-two knees (11 subjects) with moderate to severe osteoarthritis (OA) were scanned using CE-MRI, qDESS with a high diffusion weighting (qDESS
Good agreement was seen between CE-MRI and both qDESS
The use of the quantitative double-echo in steady-state (qDESS) sequence for synovitis assessment does not require the use of a gadolinium-based contrast agent. Preliminary results found that low diffusion-weighted qDESS (qDESS
qDESS shows potential as an alternative MRI technique for assessing the severity of synovitis without the use of a gadolinium-based contrast agent.