Subchondral micro-perfusion in patients with knee osteoarthritis via dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI

GUO Da; PAN Jian-ke; HUANG Wei-kang; CAO Xue-wie; CHEN Jia-yi; MA Zhen-wei; LIU Jun

Abstract：Objective To observe characteristics of subchondral micro-perfusion in patients with different stages of knee osteoarthritis at interesting regions of medial and lateral distal femur and tibia plateau.Methods Patients with knee osteoarthritis were enrolled and divided into two groups, severe osteoarthritis group with Kellgren-Lawrence ( K-L) grading at 3~4 (n=20) and mild osteoarthritis group with K-L grading at 1~2 (n=15), as well as 15 volunteers as control group.Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI(DCE-MRI) was applied in all participants to acquire multiple se-quence images and sagittal dynamic contrast-enhanced images.The sagittal dynamic contrast enhanced sequence images and the intensity-time curve were attained with mean curve function.The 4 similar subchondral rectangle regions were selected at medial and lateral condyle of distal femur and tibia plateau.Basic signals, enhanced rate and maximum up-slope of these regions were measured and compared.Results There were no significantly statistical differences in basic signals among the 3 groups.Significant enhancements in the maximum upslope of medial distal femur and lateral tibia plateau, the maximum upslope and enhanced rate of the medial tibia plateau were observed in severe osteoarthritis group when compared with those in mild osteoarthritis group.Significant enhancements in the maximum upslope and enhanced rate of medial distal femur and tibia plateau, the maximum upslope of lateral tibia plateau were observed in severe osteoar-thritis group when compared with those in control group.Conclusion By the mean of DCE-MRI, we assume that the subchondral micro-perfusion is associated with the severity of osteoarthritis.