title: In vivo MRI assessment of knee cartilage in the medial meniscal tear model of osteoarthritis in rats.
abstract: We present a new approach for quantifying the degradation of knee cartilage in the medial meniscal tear (MMT) model of osteoarthritis in the rat. A statistical strategy was used to guide the selection of a region of interest (ROI) from the images obtained from a pilot study. We hypothesize that this strategy can be used to localize a region of cartilage most vulnerable to MMT-induced damage. In order to test this hypothesis, a longitudinal study was conducted in which knee cartilage thickness in a pre-selected ROI was monitored for three weeks and comparisons were made between MMT and control rats. We observed a significant decrease in cartilage thickness in MMT rats and a significant increase in cartilage thickness in sham-operated rats as early as one week post surgery when compared to pre-surgery measurements.
authors.affiliation: Pfizer Inc, Groton, CT, United States. Zhiyong.Xie@pfizer.com
authors.forename: Zhiyong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Serguei
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liachenko
authors.forename: Ping-Chun
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Chiao
authors.forename: Santos
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Carvajal-Gonzalez
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bove
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bocan
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007718:Knee Injuries / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008592:Menisci, Tibial / Q000473:pathology*; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000473:pathology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D000070600:Tibial Meniscus Injuries