Vanessa A. Lukas1,
Kenneth W. Fishbein1, Ping-Chang Lin2, Michael Schr3,
Corey P. Neu4, Richard G. Spencer1, David A. Reiter5
1Magnetic
Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy Section, National Institute on Aging,
National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2Department
of Radiology, Howard University College of Medicine, Washington, DC, United
States; 3Philips Healthcare, Highland Heights, OH, United States; 4Weldon
School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN,
United States; 5Clinical Research Branch, National Institute on
Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, United States
In this study, we extend our previous work on classification of degradation of bovine nasal cartilage, performed at 9.4T and 4 C, to the problem of classification of osteoarthritic human articular cartilage explants at physiological temperature (37 C) and at the clinical field strength of 3T. We compared the conventional univariate classification scheme to multiparametric classification according to multivariage Gaussian models. Using the MRI parameters T1, T2, T2*, and ADC, multiparametric classification showed substantially improved accuracy in discriminating between normal and OA cartilage, as determined based on OARSI histological scores. These initial results represent a promising step towards diagnosis of cartilage matrix degradation during early OA using acquisition schemes that are readily available on clinical MRI systems.
Keywords