Abstract #1673

Rahal A, Fullerton G

Hypothesis: MRI can detect and measure glycation of tendon collagen in-vitro. MRI of samples incubated in glucose vs. controls shows increased signal intensity (SI) over time (to a maximum of 7.3 times over controls), greater on sequences with short TE, small flip angles, and with samples parallel to the main magnetic field (P). MRI of samples oriented at the magic angle (MA, 55 to Bo) showed increased SI of glycated tendons up to 1.5 times over controls. A glycation index was calculated and plotted versus incubation time (up to 30 weeks) extrapolated to years at 180 mg/dl of glucose.