Abstract #0078

In Vivo Evaluation of Low-grade Cartilage Defects in the Knee using Sodium MRI at 7T

Stefan Zbyn^1,2, Vladimir Mlynarik¹, Vladimir Juras¹, Markus Schreiner^1,3, Didier Laurent⁴, Joerg Goldhahn⁴, Nicole Getzmann⁴, Stefan Marlovits⁵, and Siegfried Trattnig¹

¹Department of Biomedical Imaging and Image-Guided Therapy, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria, ²CD Laboratory for Clinical Molecular MR Imaging, Vienna, Austria, ³Department of Orthopaedics, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria, ⁴Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Basel, Switzerland, ⁵Department of Trauma Surgery, Medical University Vienna, Vienna, Austria

To our best knowledge, this is the first report on employing sodium (23Na) MRI for the in vivo evaluation of low-grade cartilage defects in the knee joint. In this 7T study, regions with chondral defect, weight-bearing, and non-weight-bearing femoral cartilage were evaluated in 23Na-images of patients after knee injury. Test-retest comparison showed high robustness and repeatability of sodium data. 23Na-MRI allowed differentiation between normal-appearing cartilage and low-grade chondral defects. 23Na-MRI can be used for noninvasive follow-up of changes in GAG content associated with cartilage degeneration. This method might be particularly useful for the evaluation of cartilage regenerating therapies.

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