Facilitating cartilage volume measurement using MRI.

To compare quantitative cartilage volume measurement (CVM) using different slice thicknesses.Ten knees were scanned with a 1.5T MRI (Sonata, Siemens, Erlangen, Germany) using a 3D gradient echo sequence (FLASH, fast low-angle shot). Cartilage volume of the medial and lateral tibial plateau was measured by two independent readers in 1.5mm, 3.0mm and 5.0mm slices using the Argus software application. Accuracy and time effectiveness served as control parameters.Determining cartilage volume, time for calculation diminished for the lateral tibial plateau from 384.6+/-127.7s and 379.1+/-117.6s to 214.9+/-109.9s and 213.9+/-102.2s to 122.1+/-60.1s and 126.8+/-56.2s and for the medial tibial platea…