Elisabeth Schoenbauer1,
Pavol Szomolanyi1, 2, Vladimir Juras1,
2, Toshiyuki Shiomi1, Stefan Zbn1, Siegfried
Trattnig1
1High
field MR Center of Excellence, Department of Radiology, Medical University of
Vienna/Vienna General Hospital, Vienna, Austria; 2Department of
Imaging Methods, Institute of Measurement Science, Slovak Academy of
Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia
T2 mapping of the articular cartilage is the technique of choice for joint MR imaging because it shows degeneration associated with changes in water content and damage to the collagen fiber network. Our current study shows that, in patients after cartilage transplantation, T2 mapping patterns, under loading, behave differently compared to the characteristic T2 mapping behavior in volunteers with healthy intact cartilage under loading conditions. This could possibly be attributable to the different ultra-structural composition of the collagen fiber network in repair tissue compared to normal healthy cartilage, and thus, could explain the different biomechanical properties.