Matthew F. Koff1, LeRoy Chong2, Patrick Virtue3, Liang Li Ying4, Li Foong Foo1, Hollis Potter1
1Department of Radiology and Imaging, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, USA; 2Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Changi General Hospital, Singapore; 3GE Healthcare, Waukesha, WI, USA; 4Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY, USA
A bony bridge, or bar, across an open growth plate may be evaluated with MRI. This study used an animal model to validate indirect measurements of bar area from MR images with direct histological measurements. A bar was created in the tibia of 18 rabbits. At 6 weeks post-op, volumetric ex-vivo MR images of the knee were acquired. The bar area was calculated from a 3D reconstruction of the segmented images and from matching histologic sections of the tibia. A strong correlation (r=0.8) was found between the measurements. The results provide a foundation for quantitative evaluation of in-vivo human physes.