title: Prediction of cartilage compressive modulus using multiexponential analysis of T(2) relaxation data and support vector regression.
abstract: Evaluation of mechanical characteristics of cartilage by magnetic resonance imaging would provide a noninvasive measure of tissue quality both for tissue engineering and when monitoring clinical response to therapeutic interventions for cartilage degradation. We use results from multiexponential transverse relaxation analysis to predict equilibrium and dynamic stiffness of control and degraded bovine nasal cartilage, a biochemical model for articular cartilage. Sulfated glycosaminoglycan concentration/wet weight (ww) and equilibrium and dynamic stiffness decreased with degradation from 103.6 ± 37.0 µg/mg ww, 1.71 ± 1.10 MPa and 15.3 ± 6.7 MPa in controls to 8.25 ± 2.4 µg/mg ww, 0.015 ± 0.006 MPa and 0.89 ± 0.25MPa, respectively, in severely degraded explants. Magnetic resonance measurements were performed on cartilage explants at 4 °C in a 9.4 T wide-bore NMR spectrometer using a Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill sequence. Multiexponential T2 analysis revealed four water compartments with T2 values of approximately 0.14, 3, 40 and 150 ms, with corresponding weight fractions of approximately 3, 2, 4 and 91%. Correlations between weight fractions and stiffness based on conventional univariate and multiple linear regressions exhibited a maximum r(2) of 0.65, while those based on support vector regression (SVR) had a maximum r(2) value of 0.90. These results indicate that (i) compartment weight fractions derived from multiexponential analysis reflect cartilage stiffness and (ii) SVR-based multivariate regression exhibits greatly improved accuracy in predicting mechanical properties as compared with conventional regression.
authors: National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors: Onyi N
authors: ON
authors: Irrechukwu
authors: Sarah Von
authors: SV
authors: Thaer
authors: Eliot H
authors: EH
authors: Frank
authors: Ping-Chang
authors: PC
authors: Lin
authors: David A
authors: DA
authors: Reiter
authors: Alan J
authors: AJ
authors: Grodzinsky
authors: Richard G
authors: RG
authors: Spencer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002417:Cattle; D019245:Compressive Strength / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D055119:Elastic Modulus / Q000502:physiology*; D016014:Linear Models; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D055171:Nasal Cartilages / Q000502:physiology*; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D060388:Support Vector Machine; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: biomechanical stiffness; cartilage; multiexponential T2 relaxation; water compartments