OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the relationship between T1 after intravenous contrast administration (T1Gd) and Delta relaxation rate (DeltaR1) = (1/T1(Gd) - 1/T1o) in the delayed Gadolinium-Enhanced MRI of cartilage (dGEMRIC) evaluation of cartilage repair tissue. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty single MR examinations from 30 patients after matrix-associated autologous chondrocyte transplantations of the knee joint with different postoperative intervals were examined using an 8-channel knee-coil at 3T. T1 mapping using a 3D GRE sequence with a 35/10 degrees flip angle excitation pulse combination was performed before and after contrast administration (dGEMRIC technique). T1 postcontrast (T1(Gd)) and the DeltaR1 (relative index of pre- and postcontrast R1 value) were calculated for repair tissue and the weight-bearing normal appearing control cartilage. For evaluation of the different postoperative intervals, MR exams were subdivided into 3 groups (up to 12 months, 12-24 months, more than 24 months). For statistical analysis Spearman correlation coefficients were calculated. RESULTS: The mean value for T1 postcontrast was 427 +/- 159 ms, for DeltaR1 1.85 +/- 1.0; in reference cartilage 636 +/- 181 ms for T1 postcontrast and 0.83 +/- 0.5 for DeltaR1.The correlation coefficients were highly significant between T1 (Gd) and DeltaR1 for repair tissue (0.969) as well as normal reference cartilage (0.928) in total, and for the reparative cartilage in the early, middle postoperative, and late postoperative interval after surgery (R values: -0.986, -0.970, and -0.978, respectively). Using either T1(Gd) or DeltaR1, the 2 metrics resulted in similar conclusions regarding the time course of change of repair tissue and control tissue, namely that highly significant (P > 0.01) differences between cartilage repair tissue and reference cartilage were found for all follow-up groups. Additionally, for both metrics highly significant differences (P