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. 2010 Jun;20(6):1532-8.
doi: 10.1007/s00330-009-1689-7. Epub 2009 Dec 16.

Does joint alignment affect the T2 values of cartilage in patients with knee osteoarthritis?

Klaus M Friedrich  1 , Timothy Shepard, Gregory Chang, Ligong Wang, James S Babb, Mark Schweitzer, Ravinder Regatte
Affiliations

Does joint alignment affect the T2 values of cartilage in patients with knee osteoarthritis?

Klaus M Friedrich et al. Eur Radiol. 2010 Jun.

Abstract

Objective: To assess the relationship between T2 values of femorotibial cartilage and knee alignment in patients with clinical symptoms of medial osteoarthritis (OA).

Methods: Twenty-four patients (mean age +/- standard deviation, 62.5 +/- 9.9 years) with clinical symptoms of medial knee OA, 12 with varus and 12 with valgus alignment of the femorotibial joint, were investigated on 3T MR using a 2D multi-echo spin echo (MESE) sequence for T2 mapping. Analysis of covariance, Spearman correlation coefficients, exact Mann-Whitney tests, and Fisher's exact tests were used for statistical analysis.

Results: Overall the T2 values of cartilage in the medial compartment (median +/- interquartile-range, 49.44 +/- 6.58) were significantly higher (P = 0.0043) than those in the lateral compartment (47.15 +/- 6.87). Patients with varus alignment (50.83 +/- 6.30 ms) had significantly higher T2 values of cartilage (P < 0.0001) than patients with valgus alignment (46.20 +/- 6.00 ms). No statistically significant association between the T2 values of cartilage (in either location) and the Kellgren Lawrence score was found in the varus or in the valgus group.

Conclusion: T2 measurements were increased in medial knee OA patients with varus alignment, adding support to the theory of an association of OA and joint alignment.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A 54-year-old female patient with clinical symptoms of medial OA and a KL score of 3. a AP, weight-bearing radiograph of both knees with alignment measurement lines. The measured angle is 183° for the left knee indicating valgus alignment. Sagittal T2 maps of cartilage for the medial (b) and lateral (c) compartments of the left knee. The mean T2 value of the medial compartment (44.92 ms) was not significantly different from that of the lateral compartment (43.44 ms) in this patient
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
A 59-year-old male patient with clinical symptoms of medial OA and a KL score of 3. a AP, weight-bearing radiograph of both knees with alignment measurement lines. The measured angle is 178° for the left knee indicating varus alignment. Sagittal T2 maps of cartilage for the medial (b) and lateral (c) compartment of the left knee. The mean T2 value of the medial compartment (56.10 ms) was significantly higher than that of the lateral compartment (49.63 ms) in this patient
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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