Abstract #1968

Quantifying the Progression of Osteoarthritis with MRI: Quantitative T2 Changes in Articular Cartilage Over a 2 Year Time Period.

Adilakshmi Kansal¹, Kathleen Hughes¹, Nabile Safdar¹, George Makris², Alan McMillan¹, Rao Gullapalli¹

¹Magnetic Resonance Research Center, Department of Radiology, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA; ² Magnetic Resonance Research Center, Department of Radiology, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA

MRI is important in the assessment of articular cartilage. Previous studies have suggested that alterations in cartilage water content occur prior to irreversible destruction. The purpose of our study was to retrospectively acquire T2 maps in 3 cartilaginous locations from an initial baseline MRI, and to compare these findings with a two year follow-up MRI, in both healthy and osteoarthritis patients from a subset of subjects from the Osteoarthritis Initiative study. Our study demonstrated that the T2 values of the medial femoral condyle in the progression cohort were significantly higher on follow up MRI in comparison to the baseline examination.