STANFORD, CA and WAUKESHA, WI, - GE Healthcare has announced that through its collaboration with Stanford University, a new MR technique for cartilage imaging was developed that has the potential to provide more rapid, accurate assessment of cartilage and also improve the evaluation of therapies for cartilage damage and arthritis. The technique, known as IDEAL SSFP, is a promising method for imaging articular cartilage in the knee, according to a paper appearing in the August issue of Radiology.

The paper describes the authors' initial experience of three-dimensional (3D) MR imaging with IDEAL SSFP, which provides robust fat/water separation in all body areas without the loss of SNR or the desired contrast. According to lead author Garry E. Gold, M.D., Stanford University, this significant development overcomes existing limitations of FS-SPGR for cartilage imaging, namely the lengthy scan time for fat suppression as well as the absence or lack or bright synovial fluid visible to the clinician. "IDEAL SSFP represents an improved method of cartilage imaging particularly for patients with knee pain from sports injuries or arthritis," Dr. Gold said. "The technique can also provide rapid-cartilage-specific imaging."

IDEAL (iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo symmetry and least-squares estimation) is a GE-exclusive technique that enables a faster, more accurate method for robust fat/water separation, potentially replacing the existing techniques of chemical fat saturation or inversion recovery. Results also indicate expanded use of IDEAL SSFP for imaging of the musculoskeletal system and other body areas.

"Stanford University's collaboration with GE Healthcare is an important vehicle for discovering new, clinically-useful applications that will broaden the utility of commercially-available imaging technology," said Michael Wood, general manager of research collaboration for GE Healthcare's MR business. "The promising IDEAL SSFP technique attests to the benefit of our research collaboration."

The paper's authors describe the use of this technique on the right and left knees of five healthy patients, four men and one woman, all between the ages of 26 and 42 years. The images were acquired on a GE EXCITE HD 3.0T MR system with a transmit-receive quadrature knee coil.

Future clinical use of IDEAL-SSFP may include studying the pathogenesis and evaluation of osteoarthritis, a prevalent disease that affects more than one-third of people over age 35 and is a leading cause of disability worldwide. In order to develop therapies for this common disease, new and sensitive imaging techniques are needed that detect early changes in articular cartilage. Potential drugs such as chondroprotective agents, glucosamine and chondroitin all require accurate, non-invasive evaluation with MRI. Techniques such as IDEAL SSFP can be used in large multi-center trials on new therapies or to understand the disease better, such as the Osteoarthritis Initiative from the National Institutes of Health (http://www.niams.nih.gov/ne/oi/).

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