title: Mechanisms of osteoarthritis in the knee: MR imaging appearance.
abstract: Osteoarthritis has grown to become a widely prevalent disease that has major implications in both individual and public health. Although originally considered to be a degenerative disease driven by "wear and tear" of the articular cartilage, recent evidence has led to a consensus that osteoarthritis pathophysiology should be perceived in the context of the entire joint and multiple tissues. MRI is becoming an increasingly more important modality for imaging osteoarthritis, due to its excellent soft tissue contrast and ability to acquire morphological and biochemical data. This review will describe the pathophysiology of osteoarthritis as it is associated with various tissue types, highlight several promising MR imaging techniques for osteoarthritis and illustrate the expected appearance of osteoarthritis with each technique.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Shapiro
authors.forename: Emily J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: McWalter
authors.forename: Min-Sun
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Son
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Levenston
authors.forename: Brian A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Hargreaves
authors.forename: Garry E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Gold
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000473:pathology*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D020370:Osteoarthritis, Knee / Q000473:pathology*
keywords: knee; magnetic resonance imaging; osteoarthritis