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T2 Clusters Are More Sensitive Than Mean T2 Change to Detect Early and Longitudinal Changes in Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstructed and Healthy Knees.

T2 Clusters Are More Sensitive Than Mean T2 Change to Detect Early and Longitudinal Changes in Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstructed and Healthy Knees. Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI Pai S, A., Gatti, A. A., Black, M. S., Young, K. A., Desai, A. D., Barbieri, M., Asay, J. L., Sherman, S. L., Gold, G. E., Kogan, F., Hargreaves, B. A., Chaudhari, A. S. 2024

Abstract

Post-traumatic osteoarthritis (PTOA) often follows anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR), leading to early cartilage degradation. Change in mean T2 fails to capture subject-specific spatial-temporal variations, highlighting the need for robust quantitative methods for early PTOA detection and monitoring.Develop and apply 3D T2 cluster analysis to ACLR and healthy knees over 2.5?years.Longitudinal case-control study.ACLR and contralateral knees of 15 subjects (9?male/6 female, 37.7?±?10?years) and right knee of 15 matched controls (9?male/6 female, 37.1?±?12?years) were scanned at 3?weeks, 3, 9, 18, and 30?months post-ACLR.3?T Quantitative double echo steady state sequence."T2 cluster analysis" was developed, incorporating registration and thresholding methods to identify and quantify elevated T2 regions (T2 clusters, T2C) in femoral cartilage. Percentage of cartilage covered by T2 clusters (T2C%), mean cluster size (T2Csize), the number of clusters (T2Ccount), and ?T2Mean (change in mean femoral cartilage T2 relative to visit 1) were computed for all knees.A linear mixed model assessed knee, time, and knee-time interaction effects on each outcome metric (P??contralateral?>?control). T2C% (?p 2?=?0.24), T2Csize (?p 2?=?0.17), and T2Ccount (?p 2?=?0.11) showed significant longitudinal change across all knees. Specifically, ACLR knees exhibited a significant increase in T2C% (?p 2?=?0.21), T2Csize (?p 2?=?0.13), and a decrease in T2Ccount (?p 2?=?0.07) with time. ?T2Mean showed significant difference between knees (?p 2?=?0.15), increase with time (?p 2?=?0.04), with no significant knee-time interaction (?p 2?=?0.00, P?=?0.772 [contralateral], P?=?0.482 [control]).T2C metrics are more sensitive than ?T2Mean for longitudinal monitoring of femoral cartilage post ACLR. Our findings suggest potential merging of T2 clusters overtime, forming larger areas of cartilage degradation in ACLR knees.1 TECHNICAL EFFICACY: Stage 2.

View details for DOI 10.1002/jmri.29689

View details for PubMedID 39740037