Knee Cartilage T2 Characteristics and Evolution in Relation to Morphologic Abnormalities Detected at 3-T MR Imaging: A Longitudinal Study of the Normal Control Cohort from the Osteoarthritis Initiative

Abstract

Purpose:To determine the frequency of degenerative knee morphologic abnormalities in asymptomatic individuals by using 3-T magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and to investigate the characteristics and evolution of cartilage T2 values in relation to morphologic abnormalities with a longitudinal study. Materials and Methods:The study was approved by the institutional review board and was compliant with HIPAA. Ninety-fi ve asymptomatic subjects aged 45-78 years who were free of risk factors for osteoarthritis (OA) were selected from the Osteoarthritis Initiative normal control cohort and examined with radiography and 3-T MR imaging. Data obtained at both baseline and 2-year follow-up were analyzed. OA-related knee abnormalities were analyzed by using the wholeorgan MR imaging score (WORMS). Cartilage T2 maps were generated by using sagittal two-dimensional multiecho spin-echo images of the right knee. Statistical significance was determined with the Student t test, the paired t test, a mixed random effects model, one-way analysis of variance, and a multiple linear regression model. Results:Knee abnormalities were identifi ed with a high frequency (90% at baseline and 92 % at 2-year follow-up). The prevalence of hyaline cartilage lesions was particularly high (86% at baseline and 84% at follow-up). A signifi cant longitudinal increase in T2 was detected in the tibiofemoral cartilage but not the patellofemoral cartilage ( P = .0072). The longitudinal change in T2 was signifi cantly associated with worsening of the cartilage WORMS ( P = .038). Conclusion:Asymptomatic subjects have a high frequency of OA-related morphologic abnormalities. A signifi cant increase in tibiofemoral cartilage T2 was detected over the 2-year period. A greater increase in T2 was associated with increased progression of cartilage morphologic abnormalities.q RSNA, 2011

Evaluation of Chondrocalcinosis and Associated Knee Joint Degeneration Using MR Imaging: Data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative

“…Intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated in order to compare each WORMS subscore (cartilage, meniscus, BMEP) separately. Excellent intra-and inter-reader reproducibility of WORMS grading by our group has also been validated in previous studies [31][32][33].…”

Femoral condyle insufficiency fractures: associated clinical and morphological findings and impact on outcome

“…4, baseline iw-coronal MR obtained in a 56-year-old male (a) demonstrates medial femoral condyle insufficiency fracture (arrow), while follow-up MR obtained 5 months later (b) demonstrates interval healing. Incidentally shown is a small enchondroma in the lateral femoral condyle previously published study reporting the frequency of any BMEP in knee MR exams performed in healthy normal adults as 36 % [36]. The previously described rates of cartilage loss and meniscal lesions in normal control populations, reported as 1.0-5.3 and 40 %, respectively, was also significantly less than the frequencies of these lesions in our study cohort (75.7 and 94.1 %, respectively) [36].…”

Probing articular cartilage damage and disease by quantitative magnetic resonance imaging

“…Additionally, despite correlations that show a difference in these qMRI measures between normal and damaged cartilage, there may be a lack of sensitivity in distinguishing the levels of clinical damage [37,90,124,125]. Finally, among the studies examined herein, even studies that have shown a significant difference in T 2 , dGEMRIC or T 1r values between normal cartilage and varying degrees of cartilage damage require anywhere from just two to four samples [57] to 95 samples [36] per group, depending on the specific study [33,49,55].…”