ACL-injured individuals, despite reconstructive surgery, have an increased risk of developing osteoarthritis and methods to identify early changes in cartilage are needed to allow implementation of treatment. Diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) has been shown to provide information on femoral cartilage health. This study aims to assess the potential of DWI to detect early degenerative changes in articular cartilage following ACL reconstruction. We found that DWI shows elevated ADC values in both ACL-injured and contralateral knees compared with controls at baseline. DWI did not show significant changes in cartilage over time within 18 months of post-ACL-reconstructive surgery.
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