Abstract #0364

Reproducibility and regional variations of an optimized gagCEST protocol for the in vivo evaluation of knee cartilage at 7 Tesla

Markus Matthias Schreiner^1,2, Stefan Zbyn², Benjamin Schmitt³, Stephan Domayer¹, Reinhard Windhager¹, Siegfried Trattnig², and Vladimir Mlynarik²

¹Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, ²Department of Biomedical Imaging and Imag-Guided Therapy, High Field MR Centre, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, ³Siemens Healthcare Pty Ltd, Macquarie Park, Australia

Early onset osteoarthritis is associated with ultrastructural and compositional changes of cartilage, in particular with a loss of glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) and disorganization of the collagen matrix. Both changes remain elusive to morphological MRI. GagCEST is a promising tool for the evaluation of glycosaminoglycan content in articular cartilage. However, it is affected by many variables, thus rendering its application challenging. The implementation of a novel saturation scheme combined with optimized fixation seems to improve the robustness of the technique as indicated by increased reproducibility. Our optimized protocol seems to be sensitive to regional differences in the GAG content.

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