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Abstract #0822

Effect of Knee Joint Positioning on the Reproducibility of T2 Relaxation Time of Articular Cartilage in Vivo

Tuomas Svrd1, Tomos G. Williams2, Eveliina Lammentausta1, Yang Xia3, Miika T. Nieminen4

1Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland; 2School of Cancer, Enabling Science and Technology, The University of Manchester, United Kingdom; 3Department of Physics and Center for Biomedical Research, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, United States; 4Department of Medical Technology, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland


T2 relaxation time in articular cartilage could provide an early biomarker of cartilage quality in disease. T2 measures are dependent on the orientation of collagen fibrils with respect to the B0 field. Variation in joint positioning has a detrimental effect on the reproducibility of T2. In a study of three volunteers, imaged five times each, the variation in orientation of load-bearing femoral joint surfaces was determined using an Active Appearance Model of the distal femur bone. Simulations revealed that the variation in T2 due to joint positioning is acceptable (0.1-4.7ms) compared to the expected elevation related to pathological changes.