David A. Reiter1, Remy A. Roque1,
Ping-Chang Lin1, Onyi Irrechukwu1,
1National Institute on Aging, National
Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, United States; 2Department of
Mechanical Engineering, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States
We
sought to improve the specificity of cartilage matrix assessment through
localized multiexponential T2 analysis permitting the mapping of
matrix associated water compartments. Maps of MR-derived proteoglycan- (PG)
bound water fractions (wPG) showed differences between young and
mature cartilage; these differences were consistent with
biochemically-derived PG content and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopic
imaging (FT-IRIS) derived PG content. Good spatial correspondence was
observed between wPG maps and FT-IRIS-derived PG maps normalized
by water content, demonstrating the potential of this approach to detect and
map PG in degraded cartilage.