Cartilage Repair Surgery: Outcome Evaluation by Using Noninvasive Cartilage Biomarkers Based on Quantitative MRI Techniques?

Figure 3

Left figure: T1rho-microfracture (Mfx). Quantitative T1rho mapping at the knee 1 year after Mfx of the medial femoral condyle. At the 1 year followup, the cartilage repair tissue still showed elevated T1 rho values as compared to surrounding cartilage. Right figure: T1rho-OAT. Quantitative T1rho map after OAT therapy of the medial femoral condyle. The cartilage repair tissue showed slightly higher T1rho values than normal surrounding cartilage. T1rho images were acquired using spin-lock techniques and 3D SPGR acquisition. TR was 9.3 ms. TE was 3.7 ms. The field of view was 140 × 140 mm. The pixel matrix was 256 × 192. The slice thickness was 3 mm. The bandwidth was 31.25 kHz. The views per segment (VPS) were 48. The time of recovery (Trec) was 1.5 s. The time of spin lock (TSL) was 0, 10, 40, and 80 ms and the spin-lock frequency (FSL) was 500 Hz.