• Hiroaki Nishioka, Jun Hirose, Nobukazu Okamoto, Tatsuya Okada, Kiyoshi Oka, Takuya Taniwaki, Eiichi Nakamura, Yasuyuki Yamashita, and Hiroshi Mizuta.
• Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Faculty of Life Sciences, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjo, Chuo-ku, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan. Electronic address: kinuhnishiok@fc.kuh.kumamoto-u.ac.jp.
• Eur J Radiol. 2015 Mar 1; 84 (3): 463-468.

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate the association between the T1ρ and T2 values and the progression of cartilage degeneration in patients of the same age group.Materials And MethodsSagittal T1ρ and T2 mapping and three-dimensional (3D) gradient-echo images were obtained from 78 subjects with medial knee osteoarthritis (OA). The degree of patella cartilage degeneration was classified into four groups using MRI-based grading: apparently normal cartilage, mild OA, moderate OA, and severe OA group. We measured the T1ρ and T2 values (ms) in the regions of interest set on the full-thickness patella cartilage. Then, we analyzed the relationship between the T1ρ and T2 values and the degree of patella cartilage degeneration.ResultsThere were no significant differences in age among the four groups. Both the T1ρ and T2 values showed a positive correlation with the degree of OA progression (ρ=0.737 and ρ=0.632, respectively). By comparison between the apparently normal cartilage and the mild OA groups, there were significant differences in the T1ρ mapping, but not in the T2 mapping.ConclusionsOur study confirmed that T1ρ and T2 mapping can quantitatively evaluate the degree of patella cartilage degeneration in patients within the same age group.Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

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