Higher marrow fat correlated with lower trabecular, but not cortical, BMD in older women but not men. Higher marrow fat was associated with prevalent vertebral fracture in men, even after adjustment for BMD.

Purpose To develop a robust sequence that combines T1ρ and T2 quantifications and to examine the in-vivo repeatability and diurnal variation of T1ρ and T2 quantifications in knee cartilage. Materials and Methods Six healthy volunteers were scanned in the morning and afternoon on two days using a combined T1ρ and T2 quantification sequence developed in this study. Repeatability of T1ρ and T2 quantification was estimated using root-mean-square coefficients-of-variation (RMS-CV). T1ρ and T2 values from morning scans were compared to those from afternoon scans using paired t-tests. Results The overall RMS-CV of in-vivo T1ρ and T2 quantification was 5.3% and 5.2% respectively. The RMS-CV of AM scans was 4.2% and 5.0% while the RMS-CV of PM scans was 6.0% and 6.3% for T1ρ and T2 respectively. No significant difference was found between T1ρ or T2 values in the morning and in the afternoon. Conclusions A sequence that combines T1ρ and T2 quantification with scan time less than 10 minutes and is robust to B0 and B1 inhomogeneity was developed with excellent repeatability. For a cohort with low-level daily activity, although no significant diurnal variation of cartilage MR relaxation times was observed, the afternoon scans had inferior repeatability compared to morning scans.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative disease of the joint and results in changes in the biochemical composition of cartilage. Studies have been undertaken in the past that have used high resolution NMR spectroscopy to study the biochemical composition of porcine, canine and bovine cartilage. In this study high resolution magical angle spinning (HRMAS) NMR spectroscopy at 11.7 T has been used to characterize metabolites and detect differences in the spectral signature of human knee articular cartilage from non-OA healthy cadaver knees and samples acquired from severe OA patients at the time of total knee replacement surgery. A statistically significant difference in the alanine (1.47 ppm), N-acetyl (2.04 ppm), choline (3.25 ppm) and glycine (3.55 ppm) metabolite levels is observed between healthy and OA specimens. The results of the study indicate that a decrease in the intensity of N-acetyl resonance occurs in later stages of OA. A positive correlation of the N-acetyl levels as measured by 1H HR-MAS NMR spectroscopy with the total proteoglycan content in the same cartilage specimens as measured by the GAG assay was observed. This indicates that N-acetyl can serve as an important bio-marker of OA disease progression. A decrease in the alanine concentration in OA may be attributed to the degradation of the collagen framework with disease progression and eventual loss of the degradation products that are transported from cartilage into the synovial cavity.

A new concept of Variable Field Proton-Electron Double-Resonance Imaging (VF PEDRI) is proposed. This allows for functional mapping using specifically designed paramagnetic probes (e.g. oxygen or pH mapping) with MRI high quality spatial resolution and short acquisition time. Studies performed at 200 G field MRI with phantoms show that a pH map of the sample can be extracted using only two PEDRI images acquired in 140 s at pre-selected EPR excitation fields providing pH resolution of 0.1 pH units and a spatial resolution of 1.25 mm. Note that while concept of functional VF PEDRI was demonstrated using the pH probe, it can be applied for studies of other biologically relevant parameters of the medium such as redox state, concentrations of oxygen or glutathione using specifically designed EPR probes.

There are increasing evidences suggesting bone marrow adiposity tissue (MAT) plays a critical role in affecting both bone quantity and quality. However, very limited studies that have investigated the association between the composition of MAT and bone mineral density (BMD). The goal of this study was to quantify MAT unsaturation profile of marrow samples from post-menopausal women using ex vivo high-resolution magic angle spinning (HRMAS) proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H-NMR) spectroscopy, and to investigate the relationship between MAT composition and BMD. Bone marrow samples were obtained by iliac crest aspiration during surgical procedures from 24 postmenopausal women (65–89 years) who had hip surgery due to bone fracture or arthroplasty. Marrow fat composition parameters, in particular, unsaturation level (UL), mono-unsaturation level (MUL) and saturation level (SL), were quantified using HRMAS 1H-NMR spectroscopy. The patients were classified into three groups based on the DXA BMD T-scores: controls, osteopenia and osteoporosis. Marrow fat composition was compared between these three groups as well as between subjects with and without factures using ANOCOVA, adjusted for age. Subjects with lower BMD (n=17) had significantly lower MUL (P = 0.003) and UL (P = 0.039), and significantly higher SL (P = 0.039) compared to controls (n = 7). When separating lower BMD into osteopenia (n=9) and osteoporosis (n=8) groups, subjects with osteopenia had significantly lower MUL (P = 0.002) and UL (P = 0.010), and significantly higher SL (P = 0.010) compared to healthy controls. No significant difference was observed between subjects with osteopenia and osteoporosis. Using HRMAS 1H-NMR, significantly lower unsaturation and significantly higher saturation levels were observed in the marrow fat of subjects with lower BMD. HRMAS 1H-NMR was shown to be a powerful tool for identifying novel MR markers of marrow fat composition that are associated with bone quality and potentially fracture, and other bone pathologies and changes after treatment. A better understanding of the relationship between bone marrow composition and bone quality in humans may identify novel treatment targets, and provide guidance on novel interventions and therapeutic strategies for bone preservation.