Validation of a Method to Measure the T2 Value from the Color Mapping by Hue Value

Abstract

Background: Color mapping using quantitative MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) is now being reported in various medical fields to be useful in showing tissue conditions and morphological perspectives. Specifically, T2 mapping as one of the color mapping has been used to describe cartilage conditions in orthopedics. However, for orthopedic physicians in out-patient clinics, the color mapping shows only the colors on the mapping to patients without explaining their numerical values. Methods: To address this issue, our study proposed an approach to measure T2 values based on the hue value converted from Red, Green, Blue information on the processed color map. We evaluated the validity of our method with 25 subjects. Results: Our proposed method showed a good and high correlation coefficient (r = 0.9924, p < 0.0001), and the difference of the T2 values between using a dedicated software on console of MRI scanner and our method was small (its absolute value was approximately 1.5, p = 0.008). Conclusion: Therefore, we consider the proposed method is an alternative approach to show the T2 value when the color mapping are available.