Benjamin Schmitt1,
Beser Ferzan Suezer2, Patrik Zamecnik3, Vladimir Jellus4,
Marco Essig3, Siegfried Trattnig, Rainer Siebold5
1Department
of Radiology, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria; 2Atos
Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, BW, Germany; 3German Cancer Research
Center, Heidelberg, BW, Germany; 4Healthcare Sector, Siemens AG,
Erlangen, BY, Germany; 5Center Hip-Knee-Foot Surgery, Atos
Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, BW, Germany
The study was performed to assess to compare the results from gagCEST imaging and T2 mapping in 30 patients after autologous cartilage transplantation with a novel chondrosphere-based approach. While T2 mapping showed no significant differences between transplants and reference values taken from the contralateral knee, gagCEST signal intensities were lower in the transplants. This hints towards a reduced GAG content in repair tissue compared to native cartilage, although a high morphologic integrity of the transplants was demonstrated via MOCART scoring. The employed transplantation technique yielded a superior biochemical and morphologic outcome compared to previous MR studies.
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