Uran Ferizi1, Ignacio Rossi2, Oran Kennedy2, Thorsten Kirsch2, Jenny Bencardino1, and Jose Raya1
1Department of Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, 2Orthopaedic Surgery, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States
The development of novel treatment strategies that would prevent joint
replacement surgery at young age, as a result of PTOA, is critical. Hours after
non-contact rupture of the anterior cruciate ligament, high concentrations
of PG and type II collagen fragments are found in the synovial fluid. DTI has emerged
as an imaging biomarker that can assess both PG content and collagen
architecture with greater accuracy than T2 or Na imaging. The current interpretation of DTI measurements is that changes
in the level of proteoglycans (PG) affect the mean diffusivity (MD) index from
the DTI, while the collagen structure affects the fractional anisotropy (FA).
This study examines the feasibility of DTI, by using biomechanics for
simulating a controlled cartilage damage. We find that DTI metrics are sensitive to the early changes in the cartilage
as a result of injury. Specifically, the correlations of the mean diffusivity (MD) are statistically significant,
but those of fractional anisotropy (FA) are not. The additional validation with histology, as well as a clinical
scanning environment make these results important in the translation of DTI to clinical practice.
