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Magnetic resonance imaging evaluation of weight-bearing subchondral trabecular bone in the knee

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Abstract

Objective

Changes in weight-bearing subchondral bone are central to osteoarthritis (OA) pathophysiology. Using MR, knee trabecular bone is typically assessed in the axial plane, however partial volume artifacts limit the utility of MR methods for femorotibial compartment subchondral bone analysis. Oblique-coronal acquisitions may enable direct visualization and quantification of the expected increases in femorotibial subchondral trabecular bone.

Methods

MR acquisition parameters were first optimized at 3 Tesla. Thereafter, five volunteers underwent axial and coronal exams of their right knee. Each image series was evaluated visually and quantitatively. An anatomically standardized region-of-interest was placed on both the medial and lateral tibial plateaus of all coronal slices containing subchondral bone. Mean and maximum marrow signal was measured, and “bone signal” was calculated.

Results

The MR acquisition had spatial resolution 0.2 × 0.2 × 1.0 mm and acquisition time 10.5 min. The two asymptomatic knees exhibited prominent horizontal trabeculae in the tibial subchondral bone, while the one confirmed OA knee had disorganized subchondral bone and absent horizontal trabeculae. The subchondral bone signal was 8–14% higher in both compartments of the OA knee than the asymptomatic knees.

Conclusion

The weight-bearing femorotibial subchondral trabecular bone can be directly visualized and changes quantified in the coronal-oblique plane. Qualitative and quantitative assessments can be performed using the resultant images and may provide a method to discriminate between the healthy and OA knees. These methods should enable a quantitative evaluation of the role of weight-bearing subchondral bone in the natural history of knee OA to be undertaken.

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Acknowledgements

Sharmila Majumdar, PhD (Department of Radiology, UCSF), encouraged this work and provided study advice and the 1.5 T trabecular bone MR images. G.L. was supported by the American College of Rheumatology/Research and Education Foundation and the Arthritis Foundation through the Arthritis Investigator Award. The research of C.E., G.S. and L.F. as well as use of the OAI 3 T MR system at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island were funded in part by a contract from NIAMS/NIH N01-AR-2-2262. DJH was supported by an ARC Future Fellowship.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors of this manuscript have nothing to declare. The corresponding author had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Imaging Institute, HB6, The Cleveland Clinic, 9500 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH, 44195, USA

    Erika Schneider

  2. SciTrials LLC, Rocky River, OH, USA

    Erika Schneider

  3. Department of Rheumatology, Tufts Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA

    Grace H. Lo & Timothy E. McAlindon

  4. Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island and the Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University School, Providence, RI, USA

    Gretchen Sloane, Lynn Fanella & Charles B. Eaton

  5. New England Baptist Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    David J. Hunter

  6. Northern Clinical School, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia

    David J. Hunter

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  1. Erika Schneider
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  2. Grace H. Lo
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Correspondence to Erika Schneider.

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Schneider, E., Lo, G.H., Sloane, G. et al. Magnetic resonance imaging evaluation of weight-bearing subchondral trabecular bone in the knee. Skeletal Radiol 40, 95–103 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-010-0943-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00256-010-0943-z

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