J Appl Biomed 16:138-144, 2018 | DOI: 10.1016/j.jab.2017.12.001

In vivo assessment of time dependent changes of T2* in medial meniscus under loading at 3T: A preliminary study

Lenka Hornakova^a,*, Vladimir Juras^b, Petr Kubovy^a, Daniel Hadraba^a, David Gerych^a,c, Pavel Stursa^d, Xeni Deligianni^e, Oliver Bieri^e, Siegfried Trattnig^b, Karel Jelen^a

^a Charles University, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport, Department of Anatomy and Biomechanics, Prague, Czech Republic

^b Medical University of Vienna, Department of Biomedical Imagining and Image - Guided Therapy, Vienna, Austria

^c Sports Research Institute of Czech Armed Forces, Prague, Czech Republic

^d Hospital na Homolce, Department of Radiology, Prague, Czech Republic

^e University of Basel Hospital, Department of Radiology, Division of Radiological Physics, Basel, Switzerland

Due to the internal structure of the knee joint, the ability to characterize and quantify the dynamic response of the meniscal tissue directly in vivo is highly problematic. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the behaviour of the meniscus under loading conditions. Four healthy young females were included. To obtain T2* values in the meniscus, the vTE sequence was used with 10 echoes ranging from 0.8 to 10.1 ms. Submilisecond first echo time is a great advantage of vTE sequence allowing for precise mapping of relatively short T2*. The two-parametric least squares fitting procedure was used to calculate T2* pixel-wise. A custom-made diamagnetic apparatus was developed to simulate stress conditions on the lower limb in a conventional MR scanner. vTE T2* was performed in five consecutive scans, 6:10 min apart. Three different compartments of the medial and lateral meniscus were segmented. The differences at the different time-points were calculated. A constant increase of T2* times after compression was statistically significant in the anterior horn of the medial meniscus. T2* mapping with variable echo time sequence might be a satisfactorily sensitive technique to detect the changes of meniscus physiology under loading conditions in vivo.

Keywords: Meniscus; Loading; MRI; vTE; T2* changes

Received: January 4, 2017; Revised: November 13, 2017; Accepted: December 11, 2017; Published: May 1, 2018  Show citation