Purpose: The aim of this work is to prospectively compare the effectiveness of iterative decomposition of water and fat with echo asymmetry and least-squares estimation (IDEAL), T2-weighted fast spin-echo (FSE), and spoiled gradient-echo (SPGR) MR imaging to frequency selective fat suppression (FSFS) protocols for minimizing metallic artifacts in postoperative ankles with metallic hardware.
Materials and methods: The T2-weighted and SPGR imaging with IDEAL and FSFS were performed on 21 ankles of 21 patients with metallic hardware. Two musculoskeletal radiologists independently analyzed techniques for visualization of ankle ligaments and articular cartilage, uniformity of fat saturation, and relative size of the metallic artifacts. A paired t test was used for statistical comparisons of MR images between IDEAL and FSFS groups.
Results: IDEAL T2-weighted FSE and SPGR images enabled significantly improved visualization of articular cartilage (p < 0.05), the size of metallic artifact (p < 0.05), and the uniformity of fat saturation (p < 0.05). However, no significant improvement was found in the visibility of ligaments.
Conclusions: IDEAL T2-weighted FSE and SPGR imaging effectively reduces the degree of tissue-obscuring artifacts produced by fixation hardware in ankle joints and improves image quality compared to FSFS T2-weighted FSE and SPGR imaging. However, visibility of ligaments was not improved using IDEAL imaging.