Project information
UTE-MRI in Osteoarthritis

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and quantitative image analysis technology has recently started to generate a great wealth of quantitative information on articular cartilage pathophysiology in osteoarthritis (OA). Short T2 values in the deep layer and the calcified zones of articular cartilage make imaging and quantifications challenging when conventional quantitative MRI techniques are used. While cartilage has been previously evaluated in OA by MRI, the deep zone was so far neglected by MR imaging but may play an important role in the early stages of OA. With this proposal, a deeper insight into the deep cartilage zone will be investigated and prospectively a clinical tool for a more comprehensive evaluation of OA by imaging will be established. Our hypothesis is that the quantitative non-invasive MRI assessment of structural composition of the deep cartilage zone analyzed with novel 2D-UTE sequence including mono- and bi-exponential T2* mapping, in addition to the conventional morphological magnetic resonance imaging, will help to detect the early changes of cartilage in OA.