Adilakshmi Kansal1, Kathleen Hughes1, Nabile Safdar1, George Makris2, Alan McMillan1, Rao Gullapalli1
1Magnetic Resonance Research Center, Department of Radiology, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA; 2 Magnetic Resonance Research Center, Department of Radiology, University of Maryland Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USA
MRI is important in the assessment of articular cartilage. Previous studies have suggested that alterations in cartilage water content occur prior to irreversible destruction. The purpose of our study was to retrospectively acquire T2 maps in 3 cartilaginous locations from an initial baseline MRI, and to compare these findings with a two year follow-up MRI, in both healthy and osteoarthritis patients from a subset of subjects from the Osteoarthritis Initiative study. Our study demonstrated that the T2 values of the medial femoral condyle in the progression cohort were significantly higher on follow up MRI in comparison to the baseline examination.