Background Three-dimensional (3-D) delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI of cartilage (dGEMRIC) helps quantify biochemical changes in articular cartilage that correlate with early-stage osteoarthritis. However, dGEMRIC analysis is performed slice by slice, limiting the potential of 3-D data to give an overall impression of cartilage biochemistry. We previously developed a computational algorithm to produce unfolded, or ''planar,'' dGEMRIC maps of acetabular cartilage, but have neither assessed their application nor determined whether MRI-based grading of cartilage damage or dGEMRIC measurements predict intraoperative findings in hips with symptomatic femoroacetabular impingement (FAI). Questions/purposes (1) Does imaging-based assessment of acetabular cartilage damage correlate with intraoperative findings in hips with symptomatic FAI? (2) Does the planar dGEMRIC map improve this correlation? (3) Does the planar map improve the correlation between the dGEMRIC index and MRI-based grading of cartilage damage in hips with symptomatic FAI? (4) Does the planar map improve imaging-based evaluation time for hips with symptomatic FAI? Methods We retrospectively studied 47 hips of 45 patients with symptomatic FAI who underwent hip surgery between 2009 and 2013 and had a 1.5-T 3-D dGEMRIC scan within 6 months preoperatively. Our cohort included 25 males and 20 females with a mean ± SD age at surgery of 29 ± 11 years. Planar dGEMRIC maps were generated from isotropic, sagittal oblique TrueFISP and T1 sequences. A pediatric musculoskeletal radiologist with experience in hip MRI evaluated studies using radially reformatted sequences.
123Clin Orthop Relat Res (2016) 474:467-478 DOI 10.1007 Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research ® A Publication of The Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons® map and 13 without the map, and total evaluation times were recorded. Results There were no meaningful differences in the correlations obtained with versus without referencing the planar maps. Planar map-independent Outerbridge grades had a notable (p \ 0.05) Spearman's rank correlation (q) with Beck's grades that was moderate in AP, SC, and PC (0.3\q \ 0.5) and strong in SP (q [ 0.5). For map-dependent Outerbridge grades, q was moderate in AP, AC, and SC and strong in SP. Map-independent dGEMRIC indices had a q with Beck's grades that was moderate in AP and SC (À0.3[ q [ À0.5) and strong in SP (q \ À0.5). For map-dependent dGEMRIC indices, q was moderate in SC and strong in SP. Similarly, there were no meaningful, map-dependent differences in the correlations. When comparing Outerbridge grades and dGEMRIC indices, there were notable correlations across all subregions. Without the planar map, q was moderate in AC and PC and strong in AP, SP, SC, and PP. With the map, q was strong in all six subregions. In AC, there was a notable map-dependent improvement in this correlation (p \ 0.001). Finally, referencing the planar dGEMRIC map during evaluation was associated with a decrease in mean evaluation time, from 207 ± 32 seconds to 152 ±...