Nade Sritanyaratana1, Alexey Samsonov2, Habib Abdulmohsen Al Saleh3, Kevin M. Johnson3, Walter F. Block1, Richard Kijowski2
1Biomedical Engineering, UW-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 2Radiology, UW-Madison, Madison, WI, United States; 3Medical Physics, UW-Madison, Madison, WI, United States
Quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) offers possible new biomarkers obtained through the magnetization transfer effect. Previous studies have observed qMT parameters of cadaveric or animal specimen cartilage, fixing T2b to calculate the fit. This study observed the bound pool fraction (f), exchange rate constant (k), and bound pool T2 (T2b) of patellar cartilage in human volunteers within 30 minutes. Significant differences (p=0.0001/0.002) were found in f/T2b between the deep and superficial layers of the cartilage. Additionally, it was found that the T2b in older active volunteers was significantly higher (p=0.01) than the T2b found in the younger sedentary volunteers.