Articular cartilage mapping through novel advances in MRI techniques

ABSTRACT

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging [MRI] has emerged as a useful tool for clinicians and scientists to assess the health of cartilage and other soft tissues. Conventional MRI provides sufficient tissue contrast to detect morphological changes in cartilage where radiography cannot. However, changes in cartilage physiology prior to morphological changes cannot be visualized or measured with conventional MRI. The recent advances in MR sequences together with the implementation of higher resolution MRI due to highfield MR systems as well as sophisticated coil technology have overcome existing limitations and led to promising in vivo approaches in morphological and biochemical MRI of cartilage. Recently, quantitative MRI techniques such as T2, T2*, dGEMRIC [delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI of cartilage], sodium imaging [[23]Na], chemical exchange saturation transfer [CEST], diffusion weighted imaging [DWI] and T1rho mapping have been shown to be sensitive to biochemical changes in cartilage. Advanced magnetic resonance [MR] sequences for cartilage evaluation are focused on the assessment of articular cartilage biochemical composition, more specifically to the collagen and glycosaminoglycan content