Gunthard Lykowsky1,
Flavio Carinci1, Kathrin Hemberger1, Eberhard Munz2,
Peter M. Jakob1, 2, Daniel Haddad1
1MRB
Research Center, Wrzburg, Bavaria, Germany; 2Department of
Experimental Physics 5, University of Wrzburg, Wrzburg, Bavaria, Germany
Sodium is known to be a sensitive MR imaging biomarker for early diagnosis of knee articular cartilage osteoarthritis (OA). The goat animal model closely matches the human knee anatomy and can be used to mimic the progressive development of OA and monitor the loss of proteoglycans and glycosaminoglycans. In this study we used quantitative sodium MRI to track the cartilage degradation following an OA inducing surgery.