Purpose Daily activities including walking impose high‐frequency cyclic forces on cartilage and repetitive compressive deformation. Analyzing cartilage deformation during walking would provide spatial maps of displacement and strain and enable viscoelastic characterization, which may serve as imaging biomarkers for early cartilage degeneration when the damage is still reversible. However, the time‐dependent biomechanics of cartilage is not well described, and how defects in the joint impact the viscoelastic response is unclear. Methods We used spiral acquisition with displacement‐encoding MRI to quantify displacement and strain maps at a high frame rate (25 frames/s) in tibiofemoral joints. We also employed relaxometry methods (T1, T1ρ, T2, T2*) on the cartilage. Results Normal and shear strains were concentrated on the bovine tibiofemoral contact area during loading, and the defected joint exhibited larger compressive strains. We also determined a positive correlation between the change of T1ρ in cartilage after cyclic loading and increased compressive strain on the defected joint. Viscoelastic behavior was quantified by the time‐dependent displacement, where the damaged joint showed increased creep behavior compared to the intact joint. This technique was also successfully demonstrated on an in vivo human knee showing the gradual change of displacement during varus load. Conclusion Our results indicate that spiral scanning with displacement encoding can quantitatively differentiate the damaged from intact joint using the strain and creep response. The viscoelastic response identified with this methodology could serve as biomarkers to detect defects in joints in vivo and facilitate the early diagnosis of joint diseases such as osteoarthritis.

PurposeDaily activities including walking impose high frequency cyclic forces on cartilage and repetitive compressive deformation. Analyzing cartilage deformation during walking would provide spatial maps of displacement, strain, and enable viscoelastic characterization, which may serve as imaging biomarkers for early cartilage degeneration when the damage is still reversible. However, the time-dependent biomechanics of cartilage is not well described, and how defects in the joint impact the viscoelastic response is unclear.MethodsWe used spiral acquisition with displacement encoding MRI to quantify displacement and strain maps at a high frame rate (40 ms; 25 frames/sec) in tibiofemoral joints. We also employed relaxometry methods (T1, T1ρ, T2, T2*) on the cartilage.ResultsNormal and shear strains were concentrated on the tibiofemoral contact area during loading, and the defected joint exhibited larger compressive strains. We also determined a positive correlation between the change of T1ρ in cartilage after cyclic loading and increased compressive strain on the defected joint. Viscoelastic behavior was quantified by the time-dependent displacement, where the damaged joint showed increased creep behavior compared to the intact.ConclusionsOur results indicate that spiral scanning with displacement encoding can quantitatively differentiate the damaged from intact joint using the strain and creep response. The viscoelastic response identified with this methodology could serve as biomarkers to detect defects in joints in vivo and facilitate the early diagnosis of joint diseases such as osteoarthritis.

Purpose: Knee cartilage experiences repetitive loading during physical activities, which is altered during the pathogenesis of diseases like osteoarthritis. Analyzing the biomechanics during motion provides a clear understanding of the dynamics of cartilage deformation, and may establish essential imaging biomarkers of early-stage disease. However, in vivo biomechanical analysis of cartilage during rapid motion is not well established. Methods: We used spiral DENSE MRI on in vivo human tibiofemoral cartilage during cyclic varus loading (0.5 Hz) and employed compressed sensing on the k-space data. The applied compressive load was set for each participant at 0.5x body weight on the medial condyle. Relaxometry methods were measured on the cartilage before (T1ρ, T2) and after (T1ρ) varus load. Results: Displacement and strain maps showed a gradual shift of displacement and strain in time. Compressive strain was observed in the medial condyle cartilage and shear strain was roughly half of the compressive strain. Male participants had more displacement in the loading direction compared to females, and T1ρ values did not change after cyclic varus load. Compressed sensing reduced the scanning time up to 25-40% when comparing the displacement maps and substantially lowered the noise levels. Conclusion: These results demonstrated the ease of which spiral DENSE MRI could be applied to clinical studies due to the shortened imaging time, while quantifying realistic cartilage deformations that occur through daily activities, and that could serve as biomarkers of early osteoarthritis.

Displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) MRI is used to calculate pixel-level deformation maps of soft tissues under repetitive motion. It is a powerful technique that can quantify the mechanical behavior of tissues from displacement. We apply spiral DENSE MRI on human knees and obtain multi-frame displacement and strain maps during varus loading, leading to compressive motion on the medial condyle. Since high SNR DENSE images require long scanning time which is costly and less tolerable for participants, we additionally apply compressed sensing (CS) to reduce the imaging time to less than five minutes.

Purpose: Knee cartilage experiences repetitive loading during physical activities, which is altered during the pathogenesis of diseases like osteoarthritis. Analyzing the biomechanics during motion provides a clear understanding of the dynamics of cartilage deformation and may establish essential imaging biomarkers of early-stage disease. However, in vivo biomechanical analysis of cartilage during rapid motion is not well established. Methods: We used spiral displacement encoding with stimulated echoes (DENSE) MRI on in vivo human tibiofemoral cartilage during cyclic varus loading (0.5 Hz) and used compressed sensing on the k-space data. The applied compressive load was set for each participant at 0.5 times body weight on the medial condyle. Relaxometry methods were measured on the cartilage before (T 1ρ , T 2 ) and after (T 1ρ ) varus load. Results: Displacement and strain maps showed a gradual shift of displacement and strain in time. Compressive strain was observed in the medial condyle cartilage and shear strain was roughly half of the compressive strain. Male participants had more displacement in the loading direction compared to females, and T 1ρ values did not change after cyclic varus load. Compressed sensing reduced the scanning time up to 25% to 40% when comparing the displacement maps and substantially lowered the noise levels. Conclusion:These results demonstrated the ease of which spiral DENSE MRI could be applied to clinical studies because of the shortened imaging time, while quantifying realistic cartilage deformations that occur through daily activities and that could serve as biomarkers of early osteoarthritis.