Jos G. Raya1, Lucianna Filidoro1,
Andreas Kellerer2, Olaf Dietrich1, Elisabet Mtzel3,
Maximilian F. Reiser2, Peter Jakob4, Christian Glaser2
1Josef Lissner Laboratory for Biomedial
Imaging, Departmentof Radiology, University of Munich, Munich, Germany; 2Department
of Clinical Radiology, University of Munich; 3Department of legal
medicine, University of Munich, Germany; 4Departmentof
experimental physics 5, University ofWuerzburg, Germany
DTI
of the articular cartilage has been restricted to ultra-high fields (>7T)
and small samples because of the short T2 and high resolution needed. The aim
of this work was to demonstrate the value of DTI of the cartilage performed
ex vivo on a 1.5T scanner and to characterize the patterns of pathology.
Excised human patellar cartilage (n=25) has been examined at 1.5T.
Additionally, six samples have been imaged at 17.6T. DTI parameters were very
similar at both field strengths. Imaging the whole cartilage plate allowed
identifying different patterns of pathology: focal lesions, alterations of
the subchondral bone and osteophytes.