title: Early articular cartilage MRI T2 changes after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction correlate with later changes in T2 and cartilage thickness.
abstract: Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury is a known risk factor for future development of osteoarthritis (OA). This human clinical study seeks to determine if early changes to cartilage MRI T2 maps between baseline and 6 months following ACL reconstruction (ACLR) are associated with changes to cartilage T2 and cartilage thickness between baseline and 2 years after ACLR. Changes to T2 texture metrics and T2 mean values in medial knee cartilage of 17 human subjects 6 months after ACLR were compared to 2-year changes in T2 and in cartilage thickness of the same areas. T2 texture and mean assessments were also compared to that of 11 uninjured controls. In ACLR subjects, six-month changes in mean T2 correlated to 2-year changes in mean T2 (R = 0.80, p = 0.0001), and 6-month changes to T2 texture metrics, but not T2 mean, correlated with 2-year changes in medial femoral cartilage thickness in 9 of the 20 texture features assessed (R = 0.48-0.72, p ≤ 0.05). Both mean T2 and texture differed (p < 0.05) between ALCR subjects and uninjured controls.
  
  
  
  These results show that short-term longitudinal evaluation of T2 map and textural changes may provide early warning of cartilage at risk for progressive degeneration after ACL injury and reconstruction. © 2016 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 35:699-706, 2017.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Stanford University, Stanford, California.
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Williams
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering and Imaging Institute, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio.
authors.forename: Carl S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Winalski
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Stanford University, Stanford, California.|Veterans Administration Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, California.
authors.forename: Constance R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Chu
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D059549:Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstruction; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007719:Knee Joint / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D011184:Postoperative Period; D011446:Prospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR); anterior cruciate ligament tear (ACLT); cartilage T2; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA)