Test-retest reliability and smallest detectable change (SDC) of MRI-based cartilage thickness analysis in a large multicenter randomized controlled clinical trial of knee osteoarthritis

Test–retest precision and longitudinal cartilage thickness loss in the IMI-APPROACH cohort

“…The testeretest precision errors observed in the current study were rather low when compared to data from a previous observational multi-center study comparing the precision of both 1.5T and 3T MRI 31 or a recent clinical trial, which used a comparable MRI protocol as IMI-APPROACH 32 . Interestingly, the testeretest precision errors were not observed to be greater for the site that acquired the testeretest scans on different days when compared to the other sites.…”

The design of a randomized, placebo-controlled, dose-ranging trial to investigate the efficacy and safety of the ADAMTS-5 inhibitor S201086/GLPG1972 in knee osteoarthritis

“…Baseline and follow-up images of each knee will be processed by the same reader. Intra-reader variability will be assessed by test-retest MRI scans acquired at baseline and week 52 for one of the first three participants at each study site, with repositioning between acquisitions [ 21 ]. The reader will be blinded to the acquisition time point, to determine intra-reader test-retest error under the same conditions that apply to longitudinal MRIs (for which repositioning is a source of error).…”

Quantitative measurement of cartilage morphology in osteoarthritis: current knowledge and future directions

“…In order to reduce chemical shift artefacts, all of these MRI sequences use selective water excitation as a means of fat suppression [13,[16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. These MRI sequences have been shown to allow reproducible assessment of cartilage morphology parameters and are therefore widely used in observational and interventional studies [14,23,24]. More recently, MRI sequences such as 3D double echo at steady state (DESS, Siemens) with water excitation (or comparable protocols from other vendors) became available [25][26][27], which additionally allow to estimate the cartilage T2 relaxation time as a measure of cartilage composition and to perform semi-quantitative assessments of some joint pathologies [28].…”