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Kinematic biomechanical assessment of human articular cartilage transplants in the knee using 3-T MRI: an in vivo reproducibility study

  • Musculoskeletal
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Abstract

The aims of this study were to examine the clinical feasibility and reproducibility of kinematic MR imaging with respect to changes in T 2 in the femoral condyle articular cartilage. We used a flexible knee coil, which allows acquisition of data in different positions from 40° flexion to full extension during MR examinations. The reproducibility of T 2 measurements was evaluated for inter-rater and inter-individual variability and determined as a coefficient of variation (CV) for each volunteer and rater. Three different volunteers were measured twice and regions of interest (ROIs) were selected by three raters at different time points. To prove the clinical feasibility of this method, 20 subjects (10 patients and 10 age- and sex-matched volunteers) were enrolled in the study. Inter-rater variability ranged from 2 to 9 and from 2 to 10% in the deep and superficial zones, respectively. Mean inter-individual variability was 7% for both zones. Different T 2 values were observed in the superficial cartilage zone of patients compared with volunteers. Since repair tissue showed a different behavior in the contact zone compared with healthy cartilage, a possible marker for improved evaluation of repair tissue quality after matrix-associated autologous chondrocyte transplantation (MACT) may be available and may allow biomechanical assessment of cartilage transplants.

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Acknowledgement

Funding for this study was provided by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) FWF P-18110-B15 and FWF-TRP 494-B05.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiodiagnostics, MR Centre of Excellence, Medical University of Vienna, Lazarettgasse 14, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Vladimir Juras, Goetz H. Welsch, Pavol Szomolanyi, Katja Pinker & Siegfried Trattnig

  2. Department of Imaging Methods, Institute of Measurement Science, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Dubravska cesta 9, 841 04, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

    Vladimir Juras & Pavol Szomolanyi

  3. Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Brockley Hill, London, Stanmore, HA7 4LP, UK

    Steven Millington

  4. Orthopedic Surgery Department, Inselspital, 3010, Berne, Switzerland

    Tallal C. Mamisch

  5. Austrian Cluster for Tissue Regeneration, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Clinical and Experimental Traumatology, Vienna, Austria

    Vladimir Juras, Goetz H. Welsch, Pavol Szomolanyi, Katja Pinker & Siegfried Trattnig

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  1. Vladimir Juras
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  2. Goetz H. Welsch
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  4. Pavol Szomolanyi
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  5. Tallal C. Mamisch
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  6. Katja Pinker
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  7. Siegfried Trattnig
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Correspondence to Vladimir Juras.

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Juras, V., Welsch, G.H., Millington, S. et al. Kinematic biomechanical assessment of human articular cartilage transplants in the knee using 3-T MRI: an in vivo reproducibility study. Eur Radiol 19, 1246–1252 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-008-1242-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00330-008-1242-0

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