Perfusion Abnormalities of Bone Marrow Edema-Like Lesions in Knees with Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury Using Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI

Jin Zuo¹, Sharmila Majumdar¹, Xiaojuan Li¹

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear is a common knee injury, and is a risk factor of post-traumatic osteoarthritis (OA). The disease is frequently associated with bone marrow edema-like (BMEL) lesions which exhibit as an area of high signal intensity in T2-weighted, fat-saturated fast spin echo MR images. BMEL is also commonly seen in OA and has been associated with disease progression and pain in OA. However, the knowledge on the pathophyisiology and significance of BMEL in ACL-injured knees is very limited. Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) can probe bone marrow and subchondral bone perfusion as well as fluid dynamics. Impaired perfusion in bone may lead to cartilage degeneration. A recent study showed bone marrow abnormalities were associated with BME in OA. The aim of this study is to apply DCE MRI to evaluate bone marrow perfusion in patients with ACL tears, and to compare the perfusion patterns between BMEL region and normal appearing bone marrow region.