Linking Joint Mechanics and Tissue Mechanics with MRI

骨关节炎（OA）是一种使人衰弱的肌肉骨骼疾病，影响十分之一的加拿大人，目前还没有已知的治愈方法。令人沮丧的是，到2031年，加拿大的OA成本预计将翻两番。 我们知道，膝关节超负荷会使个人面临患OA的风险。例如，超重或膝关节内翻或弓形腿的人患OA的风险更高。这被认为是因为膝关节承受的力增加或异常。 我们还知道，对于传递这些力很重要的组织，如软骨和半月板，在OA中分解，因此它们不再发挥这一重要作用。 我们可能需要纠正力的传递方式，以减缓或阻止疾病的进展，但为了做到这一点，我们必须首先了解关节过载和组织过载之间的关系。 在这个项目中，我们的目标是开发必要的工具，以了解整个关节和组织水平过载之间的关系。 我们建议通过使用磁共振成像（MRI）和生物力学实验室工具来做到这一点，MRI非常擅长生成有关组织健康的信息，而生物力学实验室工具可以为我们提供非常准确的关节力学测量。 这样我们就有了一个可以用来理解基本重载关系的工具。 这将最终提高我们对OA的理解，并最终允许医生开发和测试这种使人衰弱和流行的疾病的治疗方法。由于OA触及如此多的加拿大人，其负担将在未来几年大大增加，我们需要成为获得治愈这种疾病所需知识的领导者。

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a debilitating musculoskeletal disease that affects 1 in 10 Canadians and currently there is no known cure. Dauntingly, the cost of OA is projected to quadruple in Canada by 2031. We know that overloading the knee joint puts individuals at risk for developing OA. For example, individuals who are overweight or who have knock-knees or bow-legs have a higher risk of developing OA. This is thought to be because of the increased or abnormal force that the knee experiences. We also know that the tissues that are important for transmitting these forces, such as cartilage and meniscus, break down with OA and so they can no longer carry out this important role. It is likely that we need to correct how the forces are being transmitted in order to slow or stop the progression of the disease but in order to do this we must first understand the relationship between overloading the joint and overloading the tissue. In this program we aim to develop the tools necessary to understand the relationship between whole joint and tissue level overloading. We propose to do this by using both magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which is very good at generating information about tissue health, and biomechanical laboratory tools, which can provide us with very accurate measures of joint mechanics. We will then have a tool that can be manipulated to understand fundamental overloading relationships. This will ultimately improve our understanding of OA and, eventually, allow doctors to develop and test treatments for this debilitating and prevalent disease. Because OA touches so many Canadians and its burden will increase so greatly in coming years, we need to be the leaders in obtaining the knowledge necessary to cure this disease.