Role of adding T2 mapping sequence to the routine MR imaging protocol in the assessment of articular knee cartilage in osteoarthritis

Muhammad Atif Ibrahim Alsayyad,Khaled A Ali Shehata,Rasha Tolba Khattab

doi:10.1186/s43055-021-00453-w

Abstract

BackgroundThis work aims at elucidating the role of adding complementary T2 mapping to the routine 1.5 Tesla MRI protocol in the articular knee cartilage assessment for early detection of osteoarthritis, and also, comparing the articular cartilage thickness and T2 relaxation times between the case and control groups regarding knee compartments affection.ResultsBoth sensitivities and specificities were 73.3% and 100%, respectively, for the standard MR protocol alone and 96.7% and 90% after adding the T2 mapping to the standard MR protocol that leads to significant sensitivity improvement. A comparison between patients and controls as regards T2 values showed a highly statistically significant difference (independent T test, p <0.001).ConclusionA combination of both morphological and T2 mapping MRI, together with clinical evaluation represents a desirable multimodal approach to the diagnosis of osteoarthritis. In the early detection of osteoarthritis, adding T2 mapping sequence to the standard MR protocol at 1.5 Tesla improved sensitivity from 73.3 to 96.7%.

Highlights

This work aims at elucidating the role of adding complementary T2 mapping to the routine 1.5 Tesla Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol in the articular knee cartilage assessment for early detection of osteoarthritis, and comparing the articular cartilage thickness and T2 relaxation times between the case and control groups regarding knee compartments affection
This agrees with Liebl et al [4] who suggested, in a casecontrol study using 130 subjects that knees with incident tibiofemoral osteoarthritis had significantly higher mean T2 values in each compartment compared with controls similar to Dunn et al [17] case/control study of 55 subjects that showed significantly (p
Kijowski et al [18], prospectively studied 150 subjects, found that increased T2 values in cartilages corresponded to cartilage lesions arthroscopically, and stated that increased articular cartilage T2 value could be used as an indicator of cartilage degeneration in OA

Summary

Introduction

This work aims at elucidating the role of adding complementary T2 mapping to the routine 1.5 Tesla MRI protocol in the articular knee cartilage assessment for early detection of osteoarthritis, and comparing the articular cartilage thickness and T2 relaxation times between the case and control groups regarding knee compartments affection. Knee osteoarthritis is characterized by progressive loss of articular cartilage. It is important clinically to diagnose osteoarthritis in its early stages to prevent its inevitable progression. With advances in joint preservation strategies that are intended to alter the course of osteoarthritis and potentially slow the joint degeneration rate of early intervention and development of many promising diseasemodifying osteoarthritis drugs [2], there is a rising demand in developing accurate and reliable quantitative. MRI techniques that are sensitive to early structural degeneration in articular cartilage. Altering early osteoarthritis is much promising than altering its advanced stages. Effective treatment of osteoarthritic patients necessitates the determination of early degeneration of knee cartilage [3]

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