Quantitative Assessment of the Morphology of Articular Cartilage in Rat by an Ionic Contrast Agent-enhanced Micro-CT Scanning
WANG Jiangxue
GAO Yu
LI Hui
MA Jiawei
FAN Yubo
Abstract：Based on the high resolution of Micro-CT, to explore a novel method for measuring the morphology of articular carti-lage in small animals, providing a basis to develop further research on the articular cartilage degeneration and injury using small ani-mals’ model.The different concentration of contrast agent and scanning condition of Micro-CT were selected.By an ionic contrast a-gent-enhanced micro-CT scanning of rat distal femur, the 3D model of articular cartilage was remodeled after segmentation and re-construction.And then, using this 3D model, the cartilage morphology in the rat such as thickness and volume was assessed quantita-tively and nondestructively.According to the different X-ray attenuation ( CT value) of contrast agent, cartilage and calcified bone, 30%contrast agent was determined as the optimal concentration.Under this condition, 4 rats′femurs were scanned and remodeled, the volume and thickness of articular cartilage were determined.The root-mean-square of coefficient variance for volume and thick-ness was 7.3%and 6.1%, respectively.Results show that using contrast agent enhanced Micro-CT scanning is an effective method to quantitatively evaluate the articular cartilage morphology including thickness and volume.
Keywords：Micro-CTArticular cartilageIonic contrast agentCartilage morphologySmall animal model
Publication Date：2014-01-01
Online Publishing Date：2026-09-11(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：5( 157-161 )