Nikita Garnov1, Gregor Thrmer1,
Wilfried Grnder2, Robert Trampel3, Robert Turner3,
Thomas Kahn1, Harald Busse1
1Diagnostic and Interventional
Radiology, Leipzig University Hospital, Leipzig, Germany; 2Institute
of Medical Physics and Biophysics, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany; 3Max
Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
The
collagen fiber network determines the biomechanical properties of articular
cartilage. It has been shown that the ultrastructure of the cartilage can be
assessed by means of T2-weighted high-resolution MRI in vitro. With the
recent introduction of ultra-high field whole-body scanners, this approach
may also be applied to human in-vivo studies. We describe a method to
non-invasively assess the fiber structure of knee cartilage and present first
results on three healthy volunteers at 7T. High-resolution in-vivo cartilage
MRI is considered a helpful and relatively simple tool to evaluate the
integrity of the collagen network and general condition.