Min-Sun Son1, Marc Levenston2, Brian Hargreaves3, Weitian Chen4, Stuart Goodman5, Garry Gold
1Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, United States; 2Mechanical Engineering; 3Radiology, Stanford University; 4GE Healthcare; 5Orthopaedic Surgery, Stanford University
T1ρ and T2 values from different regions of degenerated meniscal specimens were obtained using 3D MAPSS sequence with short echo times. Proteoglycan and collagen content and different mechanical properties were additionally measured for those regions. While regional patterns of the T1ρ and T2 did not match those of the extracellular matrix composition or mechanical moduli, T1ρ and T2 showed strong correlation with water and moderate correlation with mechanical properties. A strong, positive correlation between T1ρ and T2 was also found for all pooled regions despite the apparent lack of correlation between proteoglycan and collagen content. The findings in this study provide insight to understanding the physical meaning of T1ρ and T2 values.